Thursday, June 2, 2016

Anger - the new narrative in content creation

As a content writer by day, I get to see a lot of content, read so much and I make it point to read most of it. An increasing trend in content that is shared is melancholic or angry. I wonder why.

Take this blog for instance, it based on the fact that I want to talk about anger. We are an angry people, as a race we've started becoming collectively pissed off about many many things, some of them frivolous, I must say. The question isn't whether you can or can't be angry, just that, that's all we feel. Few moments of relief in between with humour and we resign ourselves to being angry.  I meet people on a daily basis who remain poised and keep telling themselves and everybody around that anger is pointless, but I can see the evolutionary need for anger, how else will you overpower your aggressor?

I am not worried by the anger that we exhibit, but in how we exhibit it. We are not just angry, we are violent, we are abusive, we are threatening everything we live with. Our content is driven by anger, take Tanmay Bhat, a mediocre comic who has become the centre of attention all because we are angry about some misplaced anger. We want to belittle the rich and remotely popular people just so we can feel better. A few tweets here and there and we are sorted. Our ego fix for day has been had. We can live in peace till the next thing to feel angry comes about.

If you see the general trend in writing content or writing shareworthy content is concerned, it is about feeling low, our humour is dictated by anger, our angry open letters are dictated by anger, our music is dictated by anger, our general unhappiness with life is expressed in anger. How did we get from 'a bunch of happy hippies' to 'hate everything' people? Why do our models on the red carpet 'slay' as oppose to sizzle? why do our politicians deliver 'tight slaps' as opposed to 'discuss'? why?

We are an angry people unwilling to confront our own fears. We are scared to be anything but angry. We're worried about getting too attached to anything that'll change us, we want more Tanmay Bhats to be pissed off about than real issues. We don't care to confront, we want to outrage and we want people to join.

9 comments:

  1. I completely agree because that's what I have been observing from quite sometime. Be it blogs, social media or TV or print media everything that features is either a story of rage, violence, outrage or worse. It takes conscious effort to find happy news or articles that gift smiles. Unfortunately, cheap humour has stolen the joy from jokes too.

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  2. You know, I can't help but agree. It's become the norm to become outraged at everything these days. Not doing so can make people feel like an outcast which is really sad when you think about it. It's why I rarely post in anger and almost never rant on my blog. It's got very far-reaching repercussions and it's not worth it. At all.

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  3. How very true. I was just wondering how Tanmay Bhat has gotten popularity because of the controversy and outrage triggered by his video. More people know about his channel AIB now. The media is waiting for news to pounce upon and make a ruckus. If it isn't controversial, it isn't news today.

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  4. Anger is starting to be the spark for many types of outrageous posts on social media. It may be a better way of expressing anger instead of physically or verbally dissing someone, but the emotional repercussions remain quite the same, if not more.
    Indeed, this is something to think about.

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  5. Anger is an emotion, just like laughter.The difference being laughter is contagious. While anger, we choose it, sometimes we embrace it and finally we wear it like a fashion accessory.

    We don't care to confront, because there was a time when we did and it didn't work. We still tried because we are happy people. But the outcome wasn't favorable. We accepted it, still maintaining our calm and composure. Then it happened again. We confronted again. We accepted it, again. Then it happened again, we can't see any point confronting. We outraged.

    Yes, we outrage not because that has become our nature, but because we have had enough of the people taking everything for granted. There is a threshold, a limit within which we can accept. But after that, we can't. And all the content we see online, all the outrage and anger, they overpower the nice, calm, composed and cat photos. This is bad. Because if this continues, we don't know what are heading towards. Hopefully, we return to our natural self.

    PS : Don't get shocked at the length of the comment. I don't speak a lot. Now, you know. No, not because I write, but because I don't make sense. Sorry about the long comment.

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  6. I agree that we have been outlandish with expressing our anger in these days. But having said that its all about expression at the end of the day, one has to be measured in their expression is all what is required.

    Also what I have observed off late and what people with vested interested have termed as "intolerance", is that one is not allowed to be expressive or have been restricted in their expression and that is one of the major reason people have become aggressive in ways of expressing their anger.

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  7. Well said. If I think of the psychology behind it, people have this need to be heard. To be heard when things are not right, when something makes them angry or upset. The need to heard translates to blogging for bloggers. Not the right thing to do but I also feel that as an emotion, anger needs an outlet and if it is through writing, why not?
    My best posts are written when I feel happy but the only one I wrote cos I was angry, is equally close to my heart.
    Great post and made me think.

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  8. Yes, well, I'm not surprised. We are a nation that thinks Arnab Goswani yelling down at panelists and pushing his opinions is news. We've become a nation that is quick to give knee-jerk reactions and woe to you if you do not have the same opinion. Nuanced thought is dead. So in this world, the Tanmay Bhat's of the world are kings. It's sad. I'd much rather have the happy hippies back!

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  9. Every time I see people explode on Social Media I am reminded of this scene from Munnabhai MBBS where Sunil Dutt says: "Yeh public hai jisme gussa hai cricket team ki haar se boss ki maar tak" You must watch it on youtube it best encompasses what you are saying here :)

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