A forgotten action: how kindness is disappearing from society
Anger is a natural human emotion. We all feel it at some point, whether it’s over a tough grade, a fight with a friend or unfair treatment. But lately, it seems like anger has taken over our whole society. It isn’t just about small personal frustrations anymore. It is becoming explosive, uncontrollable and dangerous. From toxic arguments on social media to tragic school shootings, anger shapes the way we live and interact. Unless we learn how to control it, this cycle of hostility will only get worse.
Social media is a daily reality. Apps like Instagram, TikTok and X are designed to keep us engaged, and often what keeps us engaged is controversy. One mean comment can spiral into a full on fight, where everyone feels pressured to take sides. Unlike real-life conversations, where tone and body language matter, online comments don’t have context. That makes it easy for misunderstandings to blow up into anger. For example, in 2019, comedian Kevin Hart lost the chance to host the Oscars because of old tweets that resurfaced and sparked outrage. This shows how quickly online words spiral into real world consequences.
Social media also gives people a sense of distance. When someone is behind a screen, it’s easier to say harsh or offensive things they’d never say face to face. That online courage leads to cyberbullying, hate speech and constant negativity in our feeds. Since these platforms thrive on drama, the angrier people get, the more attention they attract. The result is a culture that rewards outrage over understanding. In 2022, a California teenager named Adriana Kuch tragically died after a video of her being attacked at school spread online. The viral humiliation and cyberbullying that followed shows how online cruelty can magnify real world pain, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Unfortunately anger doesn’t always stay online. Too often it spills into reality in ways that have devastating consequences. Shootings are one of the most tragic examples of this. When people fail to control their anger, they sometimes resort to violence instead of resolving conflict in healthier ways. Schools, which should be places of safety and learning, have instead become sites of fear for many students.
This isn’t just about major tragedies either. Smaller acts of aggression, fights in the hallway, verbal threats, bullying, are all fueled by the same inability to process anger productively. When people don’t know how to calm down or see other perspectives, they lash out at whoever is nearby, even if that person did nothing wrong.
Another place where anger thrives is in politics. In today’s world, it’s almost expected that people will fight over their beliefs. Having different opinions is part of being human, but somewhere along the way, society decided that disagreeing means you have to be enemies. Instead of listening, many people just yell louder, post insults online or cut others out of their lives completely. During the 2020 presidential election, families and friendships were torn apart over political disagreements fueled by viral social media posts, making it clear how toxic division has become. According to John Hopkins University nearly half of Americans believe that members of opposing political parties are “evil”.
This constant hostility teaches us that if someone thinks differently, they don’t deserve respect. But that mindset only fuels more anger, pushing people further apart instead of bringing them together. It’s especially damaging for young people, because we’re growing up in an environment where division feels normal.
All of this anger, online, in schools, in politics, adds up. On a day to day basis it affects how we interact with one another, how we feel about ourselves and even how safe we feel walking into class. When anger becomes part of the background noise of daily life, it wears us down.
For students, that stress can be overwhelming. It can make us anxious, frustrated or disconnected from people we care about. In some cases it can even make us angry ourselves. It’s a cycle that feeds on itself- the more anger we see, the more anger we carry and the more we contribute to the problem.
The problems feel massive, but the changes to solve them start small.
First, limit the negative side of social media. Which doesn’t mean deleting every app, but means being intentional about how we use them. We can choose to take breaks, unfollow toxic accounts and resist the urge to jump into arguments that will only leave us drained. Studies have shown that teens who take short breaks from social media report feeling less anxious and more connected in real life.
Second, strengthen interpersonal relationships. Face to face conversations matter more than we think. When we talk to people directly it’s harder to reduce them to an enemy. Building strong friendships, practicing empathy and even just listening without judgment can reduce anger. Conflict will always exist, but when we learn how to control it, it doesn’t have to be destructive.
Third, become media literate. A huge amount of anger comes from misinformation and manipulated content designed to make us react. Learning to identify reliable sources, question what we read and avoid falling for clickbait outrage is essential. Media literacy is a life skill that can help us stay calm and think critically when we are surrounded by heated debates. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation about vaccines fueled protests and anger worldwide. But fact checking resources helped many people push back against false claims.
Anger itself isn’t the enemy, the problem is what happens when we let anger control us instead of the other way around. Our generation can break this cycle by choosing healthier responses. If we learn to pause before reacting, see others as people instead of opponents, prioritize understanding over outrage, we can feel safer, kinder and more connected.
The world doesn’t have to be defined by uncontrolled anger, but we can define it by how we overcome it.
