Why is it people are so attracted to drama these days?
I have my own theories on why, but it seems that back in the day, adults at least would try to avoid being involved in drama, and now the reverse is true. I suspect that a lot of it has to do with social media incentives and conditioning for attention-seeking behaviour, but I also think that there is more to it than that also.
I reckon that the current culture and the way we spend our lives, is making us more disconnected from each other, and this leads to us feeling increasingly irrelevant. And the lowest point in the fence to feel relevant, is to be involved in drama. And the emotional responses to drama can provide the fodder to evoke emotions that make people feel connected to to thers, even if they are not at all. And in a similar vein to irrelevance, is that many people are constantly looking to escape their life, to avoid the daily grind, and online drama gives them a place to do this, as well as provides all of the emotional triggers to release dopamine or adrenaline, creating a push and pull effect that is addictive.
And then of course, there is the sense of control, especially online. And this might be tied to the desire for avoidance too, where if in real life there isn't a sense of purpose or self-direction, it can be obtained by engineering or being involved with drama. The people who seem to get emotionally attached to the various digital drama-scapes, seem to be the ones who also have the least amount of control in their personal lives.
Drama is attractive and addictive.
And in a global culture and economy that has put such a big emphasis on attention, and reduced the will for developing skillsets, drama is the easiest way for people to participate. The problem is of course, that attention-seeking behaviour where the incentives encourage the negative, facilitates a race to the bottom. It feels like "not too long ago" people aspired to be better, to compete on improvement. However, over the last few decades the incentives of the economy and culture has led to a competition for who has the worst life, who is the biggest victim. The awards and rewards don't go to the best, they go to the ones who can market themselves as the most tortured.
And then of course, there are the people who want to make themselves relevant by getting involved in drama that they are not actually impacted by. Dramatic situations provide instances to gain "morality points" so that people can feed their saviour complex, and feel relevant in a life where they often feel powerless. This means that they can become good people in their own eyes, even though it doesn't matter if they are right or wrong on any topic or situation. And then of course, there is the ability to feel like they are "punishing" the other side for something - whatever side they don't like at that moment.
I feel like the entire digital landscape is designed to maximise drama and rage for attention. It drives engagement, gets people polarised, makes them slap angrily at the keyboard, throwing in ALL CAPS for dramatic effect. And more often than not, the most outspoken, the most "passionate" are the ones who don't actually understand much of what is going on in the situation, they just jump in to get their narcotics hit, like the drama addicts they are.
Not much is "new" when it comes to human behaviour, but there is more weight on publicising ourselves now. I think this ties into the pushed concept of "personal branding" which has always existed through reputation with those known to us, but has been extended massively to include strangers. We have been encouraged to generate a digital profile of ourselves as an extension of who we are, even if it doesn't actually align with well, who we are. This profile we have been conditioned to care about, then becomes a Kewpie doll that can be used to manipulate and influence us, and others who interact with it in some way.
I rarely get involved with the drama these days, which is why I stay out of most public Discords, as they are filled with the dram-seekers and those who have far too much time on their hands, and far too little relevance in their lives. It ties me out and saps my mental and emotional energy, and since I don't have that much to spare, I'd rather use it more effectively elsewhere. I like that Hive is public and people have to commit to their thoughts in the moment, but there are also a lot of attention-seekers in the race to the rock bottom, rather than a race to the unlimited top.
I guess we all have our addictions.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I definitely think a lot of it has to do with power and the feeling of power people get when they can spread, share, or be involved in the drama. I think that drama ties really closely to gossip and in a world where knowledge is readily available, people like the exclusivity they have knowing something someone else doesn't. Which then makes them feel powerful and they choose to spread the drama.
This is a very good point and should be included in the list!
Attention is a new currency of today's generation, that's the reason why they love drama. It also, makes them weak and entitled to every thing.
And the money is being made by the platform.
Yes, absolutely right. The platform makes most of the money and the user lost everything as they spent most of there valuable time for nothing.
When I was on Facebook there was a lot of drama. I left about six years ago and definitely don't miss it.
Yeah, I don't miss it either. Or Instagram. Or Twitter. Never used the others - learned to never download them :)
I don't like drama, I try to stay away from drama. Some people really like it. There are people who have problems without drama :) Survival itself requires serious energy. And I can't waste my energy on drama.
Yes. They seek it out for relevance and for that emotional hit.
I agree with drama being addictive to people. When everythings is clear and normal people leave because addiction is gone. Thats the reason why people get devorced so easily these days.
Without drama, people have n o passion these days. Passion used to come from learning to be good at something.
We have a person in our life that I think they are addicted to drama. It seems no matter what it is, they attach some type of drama to it. It could be feeding their cat and they could create drama from it. We have basically cut them out of our life as they have made themselves the center of their own life with their drama.
I like the idea of creating epic stories from mundane events, but not drama and negativity from the same events. I know a few drama queens.
Yep me too. Sadly she didn’t used to be this way.
My addictions(gambling and gathering HP/HBD) keep on fighting each other. The problem with gambling is that I never quit while I am still in the lead. One time while playing blackjack I was able to turn 100(?) Hive to 1200+(?). I wish I had stopped then. But I keep playing till I lose everything...
Do you think you will ever learn that gambling is for losers?
for a while I had stopped. But then I logged in to see if there are free spins and relapsed. 😔
most women love drama and we even use it to manipulate in real life that's why social networks are mostly used by women not only for profit but because we want to appease our ego that's why we upload so many pictures to different networks because even if we deny it and say they are pictures just for us we want to be admired and get some attention sounds sad but it is so and many men have adapted and changed over time drama is our bread and butter
I think that men are just as attention seeking these days, though the topics might be different.
In today's world we have to think carefully about spending over time on the internet not every platform and application worth using
I reckon very few are worth using. Many should be destroyed.
More or less we all are attention seekers, and that doesn't mean we have to do it by any means as you mention. You are absolutely true from a couple of dacedes it has turned into a new level of madness. Digital platforms have brought it into a new level. Creating online profile seems funny to me. People know it's fake. Still people do it. Actually the world, now-a-days is run by attention. Big companies want people attention for the product and so they pay huge to another seekers.😂
But, this is not the value of the profile - the value is in the platforms selling access to it and its network.
For me, this ‘drama’ is nothing more than mere manipulation by the digital generation. Behind every performance or scene they do behind or in front of the screen there is a meaning, perhaps conscious, to influence other people. Sexual drama is gaining a lot of relevance on social media.
yup! drama lama.. who needs it?! 😉😎🤙
Some drama queens and kings won't like this post.
Today one's social media profile is considered to be their personal branding or reputation, particularly for women. Last day, a female colleague told me that, she can't share her photo with the same clothes more than one time on her profile. I think we, men, wouldn't care it this much :)