Rage Bait -The Word Of The Year
You are not going crazy
Rage bait was named Oxford’s Word of the Year 2025 after a public vote and lexical analysis showing usage tripled over the last 12 months. This is significant not only for people like me who like words, but for our entire society and collective experience.
After “brain rot” in 2024, it was only a matter of time before “rage bait” really got a hold of us. Brain rot describes the feeling of having a “dulled” mind from scrolling too much on social media platforms or other trivial online content. On average, people spend 2-3 hours a day on social media “consuming” content. Gen Z outperforms in this category, averaging 4-5 hours per day. Meaning some of them can’t put it down at all.
“Rage bait” builds on that theme of how online content affects cognition and emotion. In the “olden days,” sex sold everything – from vacuum cleaners to cars. These days, rage outperforms anything we’ve ever seen in audience engagement.
Oxford defines it as: Online content intentionally designed to provoke anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive — typically to increase engagement (clicks/comments/shares). Oxford noted that “rage bait” captures a shift from curiosity-based clickbait to outrage-driven engagement, often amplified by algorithms.
More eyeballs mean more advertising revenue for companies and content creators alike. But while it might all be about dollars, it makes terrible sense for us social media users, and for society.