So why is it that when you see misaligned tiles in a public bathroom, you can’t help but snap a picture to share it with your friends and family? Well, there might be a few things at play here, but emotional catharsis through social validation is probably the best guess.
Emotional catharsis is a release of tension that builds up when experiencing a certain emotion. For example, when you’re sad, the emotion might fill you up to the point when you overflow and might start crying. After that, you feel lighter and calmer because you released that feeling from your body—you experienced a catharsis.
Similarly, when you fail to neatly open the foil part off of a Nutella jar, you can get understandably annoyed. You can, of course, let that annoyance build until you overflow and start shouting at a random stranger. Or, you can let it go right away by tweeting about it to the world and letting others validate your frustration. Because sometimes, all you need to soothe your soul is a random person on the internet saying that they feel your pain.
On the other side of the screen, when we are looking at mildly infuriating images, we are exercising our empathy muscle. Most of us are familiar with the pain of seeing all the toppings fall off the pizza slice as you’re picking it up, and we feel bad for people going through it. We relate to it, and that’s why we click that like button and comment with our support.
We also know friends who can relate to the same pain so these pictures are also highly sharable. We seek to connect and commiserate so we tag people and retweet posts that floats the frustration bubble up to the top. A study published in 2016 showed that social media usage can increase a person’s feelings of empathy, and these images are a great example of that.
On top of relatability, mildly infuriating pictures are also very universal. The annoying experiences transcend the need for words and they occur no matter where you find yourself on the globe. This gives them even more potential for being shared and appreciated everywhere. After all, people from different backgrounds can be familiar with the frustration of someone parking just a tad bit too close.
On the other hand, according to Joe Palka, a journalist who co-wrote “Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us” with Flora Lichtman, annoyances can be very individualistic. For example, if public transportation always comes on time wherever you live, you might get annoyed if it’s running late. However, if it’s never on time, you are probably not too bothered if it turns up later than expected. This might be part of the reason why there’s so little research on things that rub us the wrong way.
Palka and Lichtman did identify three essential qualities for an annoyance. First is that it has to be noxious without being harmful. Second, and that’s a big one, is that it needs to be unpredictable and intermittent. Lastly, to ramp up the frustration, it has to persist just long enough to be somewhat bearable but also not quite. Altogether, this makes an annoying situation to remember.
Sometimes the annoyance we feel is not at all related to the images we’re seeing, it’s something we’ve been carrying with us that needs unleashing. Our lives might not always offer a chance to release frustrations related to our family or work routines. A list full of other people’s annoyances allows us to let go of our grievances while, at the same time, giving us a distraction from our problems.
Another thing that makes these mildly infuriating posts so appealing and popular is the humor in it. A lot of the mildly frustrating images are quite ridiculous and funny in their own way. No one is experiencing real harm that’s detrimental to their well-being, they’re just a little unlucky. This allows one to smile at the little misfortunes without feeling guilty. Sure, your cat sitting on your pizza is a bummer, but it’s also quite hilarious at the same time.
