In today’s interconnected world, we’ve all done it. The scenario could be anything: you receive bad service, get a terrible meal, or are mistreated by a friend. Understandably, you’re angry. Actually, more than that, you’re really pissed off. The more you think about it, the angrier you get, so you decide the best thing to do is unleash all that vitriol in written form – maybe a carefully crafted email or an online review – and release it out into the world. It’s cathartic, almost healing, right?
Actually no. Research has shown that venting can actually make us feel worse. And as Brad Bushman, a professor of psychology and communication at the Ohio State University in the US told Elizabeth Bernstein from The Wall Street Journal this week, the ease with which we rant on the Internet is making us angrier than ever.