Triggered interaction and the generation of value
What triggers you?
This morning I was thinking a little about my own emotional triggers and what I find is that for the most part, I don't get triggered from online interaction. I am more prone (and especially after my infusion treatments when I have migraines) when I am overly tired and it is at these times that the barrier to triggers is at their lowest. There must be a lot of tired people online however, as it seems that it takes very little to evoke an out of proportion emotional response.
What I think has happened is that there are an increasing amount of people who have essentially grown on the internet and have been largely protected from real world interactions. I do think that this is more "western world" than others as it is a luxury to spend time thinking about and building emotional safe zones and padded childhoods.
Much of the world however haven't that luxury and still about half of the world's population do not have access to the internet at all. This creates an availability and selection bias, and considering that the largest and most active users of the internet are those who grew up using it, it can appear that the entire world is filled with emotional wrecks prone to depression, outrage and a willingness to inflict pin onto strangers at every opportunity available.
I have noted on Steem several times, that those who are a little longer in the tooth and have not spent their childhood online, tend to do the best and, are the most rounded and balanced. There are several possible and multiple reasons for this, but the main one is probably that there is a greater depth and diversity of experience with much of it being unprotected and outside of engineered safe zones without the protection of distance and separation of a digital interface.
They tend to have a little more "real-world" in their history that covers social aspects as well as employment, experience with personal finance, fending for the self and living through different kinds of hardship. Pain and suffering is character building, and while some characters turn bitter, others will strengthen and become much more pragmatic and understanding. Very little of what most people do online is practical in nature and the view from what many people consume is heavily skewed and unreal, it is engineered for clicks.
Clicks are the core metric of the consumer internet and it drives everything from advertising revenue and news articles, to the dopamine kick that a like gets on Facebook or Twitter. The things that get the most clicks are much like the stories that get the most reads in a newspaper - if it bleeds, it leads.
The consumer internet is driven by outrage and that means it is in an intimate relationship with emotional triggers of the audience, as it is us who like, dislike and share the content we consume. The more group definitions can be identified and separated, the easier it is to create the divisions and polarization of opinion required to hijack emotional circuitry and use it to drive outrage for an increase in engagement and clicks.
I don't know about most people, but I would assume that many don't spend a great deal of time understanding their personal triggers to work out where they come from and disconnecting the wiring, or at least creating a filter to parse the information before reaction. Instead, most seem to subscribe to the programmed "show your feelings" doctrine that has been pushed for the last 30 years which becomes highly leverageable.
So, I was wondering what people's thought are on their own personal triggers and how many are able to identify they are in the process before they respond? And, how many tap away angrily at their keyboard unfiltered believing that the emotions they have are the expression of their true self?
Does being "authentic" mean speaking unfiltered when the reaction one has is programmed by society over the space of decades? Is the real us just a person filled with outrage that responds to every perceived slight? It is interesting to investigate considering our emotional triggers and reactions are what supports and drives the transactions of the most valuable corporations on earth.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
I find the things that trigger me the most, and I would guess this goes for others too, are when someone touches on something I'm already feeling insecure about. Also, whether it triggers me or not depends on my frame of mind at the time. What I can brush off and laugh about on a good day will just make me feel worse on a bad day.
Being triggered says more about you than the person writing or talking and would be better seen as an opportunity to assess why it's upsetting you.
Some people are masters at identifying the nerve and attacking it others at identifying the nerve and helping it recover.
This is a major problem with SoMe as this type of context is not factored in, especially after time has passed.
I think there are two very different societies at play here. Online as you said has been around awhile now, the psychologist have had time to learn how to separate out the two societies and to build a playground for themselves in the society of the internet.
Many people will rant and rave to a lot of strangers on-line, air grievances with strangers on line, and bully those they can on line. In the other society; the walking talking one, not the sitting typing one, people will and do react differently when face to face.
Making a scene in the walk and talk society is very very much looked down upon by most people, on line society, this is the norm, it is part and parcel of the look at me syndrome. A cry for attention they can not use in the walking society.
I have noticed however over the last couple of years of there being some bleed over from the sitting typing society of the internet. People in general are seeming to become more tense, more angry, yet at the same time, I have also noticed over the last couple of years that on-line is becoming a little bit more polite.
I think soon the sociologist will be having a lot of fun trying to figure out where current society became bi-polar, while the psychologist and psychiatrist just sit back laughing their asses off.
I have buttons and triggers, and what sets them off sometimes is a mystery to me, but then again, I tend not to look to closely at my bad reaction and still prefer to wear the rose colored glasses verse the ones with hypnotic swirls and flashing lights.
And it is encouraged as it drives attention for a site and increases Time on Site (ToS) metrics.
I think it would be interesting to track the instances of road rage in relationship to the expansion of social media and the internet in general,
You spend too long on Steem :D
I think most already know, and the behavioral economists know precisely.
I don't think you are alone. :)
Interesting post!
I think being triggered has become more socially acceptable and that is part of the reason we see more of it in younger people. People my age made fun of overly emotional reactions.
My own triggers are mostly about "Guilt Trips"
Suicide threats
Using vets, women, children, tragedy to promote your product, opinion or politics.
Blaming others for things they have no control over.
I expect these are my triggers because I am from a long line of Catholics and there is nothing like a Catholic guilt trip, I've had to learn how to not respond to these guilt trips and sometimes it is hard.
I also see some of the "Triggered" things we see today as drama and not really about the issue being claimed. That can trigger me also. :)
I am glad I don't have the religious programming :)
There is no limit it seems to what can be made socially acceptable, as long as consumption keeps driving it. When I was a kid, fat children were considered unhealthy - these days, it is socially acceptable for a parent to feed a kid crap.
Humor is a good way to temper emotions and cause reflection. These days it seems that real humor has been replaced by cruelty and attack under the label of humor - quite different.
I think these days in the real world, the thing that triggers me the most (besides my wife) is people sitting on phones while their children are around. It is kind of like "cats in the Cradle" except at least in that song, the Dad was working - these parents are just consuming.
It takes some time to learn how to remove certain programming for sure. Yet, on the flip side I have a lot of great values that I choose to keep. So it's a wash.
I think there will be a short lived embracing of the overly emotional, but because it doesn't work long-term, my expectation is reason will prevail.
Anyone who can't take or make a joke, is pretty hard for me to relate to.
Happy Holidays Tarazkp!
It would be nice if it was easier to identify and onboard the good and let the bad slide.
Have you noticed that there are plenty of people who can make, but not as many who can take these days?
Merry Holidaymas and New year to you too.
I find it fascinating when somebody unironically suggests that their fear of something qualifies as an argument against it; instead of a reason to disqualify themselves from the discussion. Thinking of guns in particular.
The fact you find them scary doesn't say anything about their nature, usefulness or value; just that you're not somebody worth including in the conversation.
If you have a fear, rather than demanding the rest of the world change to keep the nasty thing away from you; see that fear as a shortcoming you need to work on; an opportunity for self improvement.
In the meantime, keep quiet and let the grown-ups talk.
I had this very experience with someone tonight when it came to a conversation about immutability, blockchain and supply chain management. Funnily enough I was told "You don't know what you are talking about" :D
For #PoSh on Twitter
https://twitter.com/tarazkp1/status/1210133509198749696?s=19
I am not sure what the result of being triggered is. I tend to be a very "angry" person, as in I am rude and crude. I deal with walk-in customers every day and it would be rare for me to not ask myself what the fuck do they want when there are other stores they could go irritate people at.
I, fortunately, get quiet and then very indifferent with a seething rage below the surface. This is mostly offline, as I grew up in a house where people hit and scream. I think on a personal level those are things I do not like but it would take a lot to get me to a point of "trigger" like I see some do ie the ones who do hit and scream. I tend to think if you hit someone then I don't see why leave them alive.
So to at least determine what I consider being triggered for me if I were to take that word seriously would be to earnestly confront the situation, be it via a very serious comment or maybe calmly explaining to someone just how pathetic I see them at work. Alas being indifferent and dismissive does well for me as I can just do my usual swearing and get through it or if possible just walk away.
Online people can be more infuriating because they are thick but also they wholly back whatever trash opinion it is they might have with no consideration. Online I have no reason to be triggered because essentially they don't exist if I don't look. If you do get into it with someone online though, flags for me is how passionate they are about certain things. I don't like when people get into that "shouty repeat yourself" mode as they try to force their opinions because my default is indifference and mostly what is right and not who is right.
Although obviously I would like to be right :)
I guess I took a long way around so to just clarify, things like what Whatsup describe the suicide threats and promoting products using tragedy or straightforward abuse are not triggers for me, I would move on and just note that they are the trash I wholly expected.
I think my biggest trigger is when people are being very self-righteous and they happen to be in my way / space... Maybe just being in my way / space is the trigger. Because I tend to already expect everything is shit, how can I be triggered :)
Do you enjoy being the angry part? out of curiosity.
Again out of curiosity, how is it possible to be indifferent and also be seething below the surface? I do understand both points, just not simultaneously. the anger/seething means affected, although perhaps that is your natural state :D but I would say that if it is, that is the effect of something in the past, not the way a person was born. Perhaps some people are born angry?
It is interesting to investigate our actions, reactions and general demeanor, but I guess the goal of life is to find a way that works for you/me, and that might diverge significantly.
from rock bottom, there is only up.
I tend to say that I am either angry or I am normal and anger keeps me from sad, I am aware of it but I don't ponder it as it is just how I have taught myself to be. It is a choice. I also understand that to remove sad you need to remove joy, I think anger and indifference replace those two. It may sound very robotic and even extreme which it is not, I am just very aware that anger is my goto. It is how I don't deal with things in a way.
You know how when you are speaking to someone utterly infuriating and you are trying to at least have them acknowledge your point but they keep doing whatever it is? So you resign yourself to calmly just keep the discussion going and you find that actually no matter how taboo it gets that it does not phase you? You are not offended or triggered by the topic and with that you can keep the discussion going with indifference to how you feel about the topic, but what you are controlling is being angry at how they are acting so you are avoiding going ad hominem on their asses... It makes sense in my head lol, how I can be indifferent and yet have rage.
True a lot of how I am and how I still try to actively model myself is to do with upbringing, so nurture over nature I would say.
Yip, there is only up.
Oh, you were at my family dinner tonight ;D
Yes, I know what you mean, because I have always been a proponent of playing the devil's advocate, so thick and callused skin gets developed. I don't get angry, I am more indifferent at these times and have learned to avoid the ad hominem attack relatively well early on, as if it is with people who are "sensitive" but one must see again, it is hard to ever come back from. People carry open wound baggage for years.
We all have our quirks, fortunately.
haha I was fortunate enough to only have dinner with my cats. Definitely agree you describe it perfectly. !tip 2
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