Double-Negative: The Fallacy of Negative Engagement
“Engagement, at any cost…”
It’s a phrase that evokes an attitude that only the Darkest of Confidants would give. For a lot of Magic the Gathering content, that is the pervading philosophy. As time marches forward so does the content culture of Magic. Back in the mid aughts we were grateful to have any kind of content outside of the mothership. There were only a dozen or so active creators and we devoured each video and article like the precious mana (think biblical) it was. As the player base for magic continues to grow so does the competition for our attention. At a weird intersection of YouTube, Twitter and Wizard’s release schedule we’ve become trapped into this spiral of negativity that, like the card Abyss, makes us sacrifice a little bit of what made this community so welcoming. Worst of all it’s outrage over petty things like pack reprints and not more impactful topics like representation and mental health. But why? And (Morpheus Meme) What if I told you that it didn’t’ need to be that way? That, in fact, content creators could engage and grow their audience without inducing anxiety and by encouraging them to celebrate everything that makes this community phenomenal.
There is a weird underlying belief that negative posts (especially ones engaging in hyperbole) tend to generate more engagement from us, content consumers. And that’s not entirely unfounded. We need not look back further than our ancestors surviving in the wild to see why. Those of us homo sapiens who were more keenly aware of dangerous stimuli were more likely to survive and those who weren’t became dinner for another. It was eat or be eaten and we carry those instinct with us still today even if they may not seem as relevant.
There’s a sociological concept known as the negativity bias which is our tendency when presented with equally strong negative and positive stimuli to believe the negative stimuli is more prominent. Understandably, it’s more likely to get our attention because the primitive parts of our brains light up. Thus causing us to engage in the material. When that material is as thoroughly intertwined with who we define ourselves as individuals or as our identity our natural inclination is to fight (THIS STINKS, THIS IS TOTAL BS!) or flight ( I guess this game isn’t for me anymore). Now admittedly this is an oversimplification but you get the idea.
Negative material, especially on a platform like Twitter, is very easy to generate. You just take a universally liked topic, like reprints and say that something or someone is against it. The problem is that this has become such a cut and paste formula for the community that it’s starting to branch into frankly ridiculous territory.
Just a few weeks ago we had EDH exclusive content creators railing against Primeval Titan being included in a Secret Lair in spite of it being banned in Commander. Now it is possible they are unaware of Primeval Titan’s strong and enduring presence in Modern but it felt more like one of the “Hot Takes” that should have been left on the cutting board. Even worse it was from content creators I have known for a long time to be makers of quality and insightful Commander articles. It almost felt like old dogs trying to learn new tricks and adapt to a changing world.
There’s nothing wrong with complaining (Heck, I complain all the time). Nor is there anything wrong with offering critiques about a game you love. I don’t want anyone to feel like I’m arguing for toxic positivity here. Rather, a lot of these negatively coded attempts at ‘tea’ look to be written in very bad faith. That is to say, they aren’t written with the intent of expressing a genuine opinion rather it is a manufactured take made to get people to interact with or notice their writer. Now these particular takes as of late aren’t detrimental as much as they are comical but they can be grating over a long period of time and for what purpose? To get clicks? While there is definitely some logic behind why negativity can get people’s attention it doesn’t do much more beyond that.
In a study on Twitter completed by Emilio Ferrara and Zeyao Yang, they discovered that the ‘emotional contagiousness’ or the likelihood that the emotion (either positive or negative) of a tweet would be transmitted to a following tweet had a linear relationship. They concluded that while there are two different classes of individuals (Highly Susceptible and Scarcely Susceptible) that in general positive emotionally coded tweets were more contagious for both groups. What that means is that users on Twitter were found to be more emotionally moved by positive emotional engagement and more like to share positively coded Tweets.
One way of looking at this is negativity will get their attention in the short term. But positivity will get them to follow and come back for content. People don’t buy clothing that makes them feel gross or play decks they hate. No, they wear what they want or play cards they like because they’re more enjoyable. In fact, I remember one of the most successful content creators in our community made the statement: “I just want to make fun videos that people like!” and that is making positive content in its purest form.
Speaking of the Professor and positivity in the community, I had planned on writing this article a while back but I’m very glad I didn’t. I am writing this on February 27th and I haven’t felt more proud and astounded to be part of the Magic Community. Brian Lewis (The Professor at Tolarian Community College) and Amanda Stevens organized a massive fundraising event for Translifeline [Link] and the turnout of both prize and direct donations is staggering. It’s truly a testament to something that I’ve always believed: the greatest strength that we have as a community is our ability to unite and come together when it’s important. This is the kind of positive engagement that really gives me hope for not just what the community can be but what it can accomplish.
Overall, I didn’t want to rake content creators over the coals (this time, WATCH OUT!) for doing what they need to do to make their living. Rather, I just wanted to appeal to those and their fans who feel like they’re doing it out of obligation. It’s ok to be annoyed or disagree with something. It’s ok not to be all sunshine and rainbows (I’m more of a CounterSquall and Lightning Bolt guy myself). But being negative out of hopes of getting that short term burst of likes and Retweets won’t gain any more long term fans and eventually, you’ll look at your timeline and just realize you posted a 30 minute rant about Jace when in reality you don’t even care that much. I’m reminded of an episode of King of the Hill where Dale told Bill :
Entertainment that just makes people upset isn’t just unhealthy for people who read or watch it, it wreaks havoc on the creator’s own mental health and self image as well. In addition to not being sustainable from that point of view it’s also not viable long term from a business perspective. Whether you’re a content creator or a content consumer all I want is for you to go out into that world and remember: You matter. There are things worth being angry about. And we can all strive to be better than we are now! I hope this article is taken in that spirit that we can all continue to come together as a community united to improve not just ourselves but the world we live in!
