Rage is All the Rage

In my ongoing series of provocations about the #future of #emotions, I have been collecting words that express where feelings —personal and collective -- are evolving and what their future might look like.?

One of the main intentions in this project is that emotions (and our related sensations) drive the creation and use of technologies as much as our technologies produce emotions or sensations.?

In other words—and please excuse the fact that this is a work in progress—our species is as much Homo sapiens (humans that know) as we are Homo formator (Humans that make) and Homo sentir (Humans that feel). To overvalue one is to misunderstand all – and all have changed over time (and will continue to do so).

have come across just in the last few hours to describe the lead up to our elections: “angertainment”.

Angertainment is where the public display of #rage becomes a source of enjoyment and a route to personal and political action. Documented road rage, the sharing of hostility on reality television, and the public displays of fury by politicians, are all examples of where shared actual feeling are now more important than the deceptive depiction (AKA “acting”) of these feelings.?

In other words, theater is out, tantrums are in.?

This is part of a trend towards where what is perceived as the real expression of emotions are only those that are shared in large groups, mediated through technology.

We are less human interpreters than techno-voyeurs.

Notice: it is anger that is entertaining. Mistakes and fear as well—check out the thousands of posts on Fail Army or the increasing brutal pranks on Tik Tok.

So, how long will it before what we see on media becomes what “real emotions” look like? Are we selling one of our fundamental attributes of being human – having complex feelings and senses and responses all bound together—to be entertained?

Ask yourself: does that make you angry?

Walter Dario Di Mantova #walterdimantova , Founder of The Gen Lab #thegenlab is an Anthropologist of the Future living in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he is struggling writing a book on the Future of Emotions, which sometimes annoys him but at least he keeps it to himself.