In positive hate following, people try to push themselves out of their comfort zones and consume information they don’t agree with, in the hopes of expanding their thinking. Unfortunately, she tells me, there is evidence that this type of ‘reading across the aisle’ can actually reinforce, rather than challenge, a person’s existing views. Then there is negative hate following, in which people engage in hate reading or hate watching purely for the purpose of feeling outrage. Loading “This is where the person is reading material they don’t agree with in order to promote a sense of moral righteousness and superiority within themselves. Not only does this serve to boost their self-esteem, it attaches them to a cohort of like-minded individuals," said Gorman. This sense of superiority comes from the downward social comparison, in which we compare ourselves with someone for whom we feel contempt. It is a form of gloating, in which we elevate ourselves at the expense of someone else.

But, as Gorman points out, hate isn’t just a personal experience; it is also a social construct. In her book ‘Anti-Fandom – Dislike and Hate in the Digital Age’ , Melissa Click likens the communal hatred of public figures to a form of reverse fandom. Individuals form alliances that mimic traditional fan clubs, with strangers bonding online over their disdain of a celebrity or influencer. Loading Examples of anti-fandom can be seen all over the internet, from social media accounts dedicated to hating on celebrities, to the website GOMI (Get Off My Internets), devoted to bitching about bloggers and influencers. Hate follows also serve a practical purpose, giving the online hater a rush of adrenaline they can channel into other areas of their life. It’s good fuel for an angry workout session to read dumb shit online, wrote a Facebook friend, who uses fury, rather than caffeine, to fuel her exercise. Anger can make us feel alive and excited when we’re feeling sluggish or low. And with the internet, anger is easily accessible. We may not always be able to hop online and find something to love, but we will always be able to find something to hate.

“I get mad (online) in a way that gives me energy,” wrote journalist Joel Golby about his own social media habits. “I feel a foot taller, like I can shoot fire from my very fingertips. Everyone is awful and it’s brilliant to watch.” Perhaps most significantly, hate following gives us a safe space in which to process our anger in real time. And let’s face it, many of us have a great deal of anger. We’re angry at the injustices in our lives and in our countries and in the world. We’re angry at our financial constraints and our shitty relationships and our difficult families and our crappy jobs. We are angry at our own powerlessness in the face of all our problems. Loading It may be confronting for us to face the true sources of our anger, because there’s often not a lot that we can do to rectify them. Hate following offers a ready and comfortable solution. We turn our anger outward, searching the internet for an external object of contempt. We sit at our keyboards and hate on the latest tall poppy, and feel powerful as we purge ourselves of our rage. Hate following has very little to do with the object of hate, and everything to do with us. The hated person is merely a receptacle for our projected anger, which would otherwise be directed to ourselves.