Why Geeks and Gamers Whines All the Time

The internet is a tough place to get attention, and many people have tried a variety of approaches. However, in all my years of watching YouTube and reading blog content, I’ve noticed that three types of content get consistent engagement: outrage content, expert content, and brand-focused content.

Outrage content (“If it bleeds, it leads”) is content meant to call attention to something problematic — controversial statements, acts of injustice, criminal activity, etc. It creates a sense of imminent threat to hold the viewer’s attention and get them worked up so that they take action. Such content can lead to the formation of outrage mobs, which swarm a target with threatening messages and even attempt to get the target fired or expose the target’s personal information — and the one who made the outrage content would have a difficult time reining in such a mob.

Expert content demonstrates knowledge of an obscure subject, often in great detail. It satisfies viewers’ curiosity, providing information they wouldn’t otherwise learn in an accesible, easy-to-understand format. Some of these videos also show a viewer how to do a useful task of some kind, like home repair, car maintenance, or anything else. Unlike outrage content, this sort of content is rarely combative.

Brand-focused content grabs attention by discussing popular media franchises in some way. Because viewers commonly have an emotional attachment to their favorite IP and want to be part of a community surrounding it, this sort of content often has high engagement, even with an otherwise middling number of views.

Why bring all this up? Because the prevalence of outrage content is a fundamental problem in the online media space.

It is inaccurate to say that “positive content gets no clicks”; in fact, many videos with little to no outrage aspects get plenty of views. However, this is because such content is either expert content, brand-focused content, or some combination of the two. Content with no other quality than “positivity” doesn’t work because positivity does not trigger a sense of dread or danger — it’s the way things are supposed to be.

Thus, to do positive content that gets attention, it must be either expert or brand-focused — and if one does not want to focus on big IPs, that leaves only expert content.

Unlike outrage content which can be thrown up in minutes, expert content requires lots of painstaking research and fact-checking; it is not an easy, quick-and-dirty thing. Thus outrage content spreads further and faster, overwhelming any insurgent attempt at positivity. The only possible way to defeat this is to do some brand-focused content, as that is the only thing that can match the speed and volume of outrage content.

Providing alternatives to outrage isn’t easy, but at the very least, there is a way forward. Do with it what you will.