Deep down inside, we wanted the gorilla to come at us so hard that he smashed himself against the glass. We were teenagers visiting the zoo with a couple of dates in tow. We thought it was funny, and we were hoping the girls we were trying to impress thought it was funny too. The several-hundred-pound gorrilla stared at us as we banged on the glass, made faces, mimicked gorilla noises, and assumed what we thought were fighting postures that would incite him to attempt to take us on. Looking back, I realize that we weren’t brave at all. Rather, we were blindly trusting thick glass to eliminate any real threat to our well-being. Instead, all we were doing was convincing the beast named Massa that we were, well. . . juvenile knuckleheads. I’m guessing that when we finally walked away from our failed endeavor, Massa was thinking how fortunate he was to be a gorilla rather than a human being. And by the way. . . not surpising at all. . . nothing ever worked out with those girls!
I thought about that gorilla encounter the other day when the folks at Oxford University Press released the 2025 “Word of the Year.” That word? Rage Bait. Like most of the “Word of the Year” winners ever since Oxford began issuing the honor, Rage Bait offers a clear reflection into who we are as a culture, what we value most, and how we spend our time. Social media, technology, and political trends have been the fertile soil upon which our shifting culture has morphed and grown, leading to the past winners including words like brain rot, podcast, vax, unfriend, GIF, Selfie, Vape, and Rizz.
Rage Bait is defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.” Tracking the use of the term over the course of the prior twelve months, Oxford found that we increasingly are creating, engaging with, and responding to rage bait, with the term tripling in usage during 2025.
Not suprising, the term was first used in 2002 to refer to aggressive driving habits, specifically to designate the response of a driver to another driver flashing their headlights and tailgating to request space to pass. Who among us hasn’t experienced that in our rearview mirror?!? Oxford calls this “deliberate agitation.” According to Oxford, “Since then, it has become shorthand for content designed to elicit anger by being frustrating, offensive, or deliberately divisive in nature, and a mainstream term referenced in newsrooms across the world and discourse amongst content creators. It’s also a proven tactic to drive engagement, commonly seen in performative politics. As social media algorithms began to reward more provocative content, this has developed into practices such as rage-farming, which is a more consistently applied attempt to manipulate reactions and to build anger and engagement over time by seeding content with rage bait, particularly in the form of deliberate misinformation of conspiracy theory-based material.”
In the context of today’s emerging youth culture, Rage Bait is both reflective (showing us who we are), and directive (showing us who we should be). Our vulnerable and impressionable kids are growing up in a world that celebrates the promotion of one’s self. . . and any avenue one can use to that end. Their learning that Rage Bait is a virtue rather than a vice. . . something to do rather than something to avoid. This is the age of self-promotion, of gaining a following, of becoming an influencer. . . and the road to “success” in each is paved with any practice that is considered a means to those ends.
It’s interesting that the other two finalists for Oxford’s Word of the Year, are also related to the promotion of the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I in both the online and offline world. Aura Farming is defined as “the cultivation of an impressive, attractive, or charismatic persona or public image by behaving or presenting oneself in a way intended subtly to convey an air of confidence, coolness, or mystique.” Biohack reflects our growing dissatisfaction with ourselves which results in working to reinvent one’s identity, specifically in how we look to others. It is “to attempt to improve or optimize one’s physical or mental performance, health, longevity, or wellbing by altering one’s diet, exercise routine, or lifestyle, or by using other means such as drugs, supplements, or technological devices.”
So. . . in an age of Rage Bait, Aura Farming, and Biohacking, what do we need to teach our kids and ourselves about how to live counter-culturally as redeemed and committed followers of Jesus Christ.? A few things come to mind:
Life is not meant to be about you. The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes Scripture in its answer to this question: “What is the chief end of man?” The simple and direct answer that should be the uncompromised focus of our lives is this: “To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” We are not here to promote ourselves, our brand, or our online image. In his letter first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31).
Promotion of yourself is a dead end street that leads to hopelessness. I love the way The New City Catechism frames the matter of our identity. Question 1 asks, “What is our only hope in life and death?” The answer: “That we are not our own, but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.” Again, it’s not about you. It’s not about me. Do you realize what that means for Rage Bait, Aura Farming, and Biohacking? My identity is something I’ve been given and not something I can create. What a hopeless and never-ending task that would be. . . and that’s something we see unfolding in human lives all around us. In Romans 14:7-8, Paul writes, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
Provoking others has no place among those called by God to seek peace. Have you ever taken the time to carefully read and meditate on the life-shaping words of Galatians 5:16-26? The contrast here between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit is unmistakably clear. Read the passage, please! In verse 26 we are reminded to “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” There you have it.
Spend alot less time on social media, and more time building up your relationships with God and others. In fact, why not put social media away, if only for a short season. And if you on social media, implement what we call The Purposeful Pause. In Proverbs we read these wise words: “Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 29:20) and “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise” (Proverbs 10:19).
While I am far from consistently hitting the mark, I endeavor to follow the wisdom of Proverbs whenever I’m using social media. Check out this free downloadable resource on How To Take A Social Media Purposeful Pause which offers some steps that you might find helpful as you take a “purposeful pause” before hitting “send”, “post”, “tweet”, or “reply.”
Rage Bait promotes anger, while gentle words turn away wrath. That’s a bit of an adaption of the familiar words of Proverbs 15:1 which read, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a hard word stirs up anger.” And when it comes to our own susceptibility to Rage Bait, how about the directives we receive in James 1:19-20; “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.” Ecclesiastes 7:9 wisely tells us, “Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.”
While Rage Bait might be here and on the rise, it’s clear that it has no place in the lives of those who follow Jesus Christ. Don’t create it. Don’t respond to it. And finally, walk away from it. . . and nurture your kids into doing the same!