'Rage bait' saw off competition from 'aura farming' and 'biohack,' among others. Delmaine Donson/E+/Getty Images

You know that feeling when you read something online and it seems deliberately provocative, almost manufactured to create outrage? You may have just encountered “rage bait” – content deliberately designed to elicit anger in order to increase engagement.

And it has become so ubiquitous online that the Oxford Dictionary named “rage bait” as its Word of the Year on Sunday.

Use of the term has increased threefold this year, suggesting people know “they are being drawn ever more quickly into polarizing debates and arguments as a response to social media algorithms and the addictive nature of outrage content,” the UK-based dictionary said in a statement.

Almost every major

See Full Page