Trolls
This week’s subject matter has been the most serious thus far. When it comes to subjects of race, gender, and politics, it is no doubt a sensitive subject. There are certainly people who would take offense to something said on the internet and they will want to put their two cents in. Sometimes, these conversations can get heated but still be constructive. However, it can also turn into a garbage fire with nasty comments meant to just get a rise out of people. This is where the trolls come in.
I do think it happens in varying degrees. For example, if you make some joke on Twitter about the Trump, there is a joke out there that both republicans and democrats would find funny, yet you would still be trolling. It’s when the comment is meant to hurt or insult someone's opinion is when trolling becomes an awful thing.
As someone who has reviewed a video game or two, I have had my fair share of interactions with trolls. Many times have I been told in one way or another that I’m a garbage reviewer or my review was terrible because I gave a pretty low score to a game that people were looking forward to. My personal favorite is when they say something I said is wrong and I have no idea what I’m talking about even though the game hasn’t released yet (I get copies of games early on occasion) and the general public doesn’t really know.
For me, I used to interact in a civil manner to see if they were just being outrageous to be outrageous. I would say that most of the time, people would actually be a bit more constructive when they are called out on something but sometimes I’ll either get no response or more trolling. I tend to ignore it now and only respond to people who had something constructive to say regardless of whether their opinion aligned with mine.
It does show, like the Stanford article said, that trolls can really be anyone. I would be lying if I said that I never wanted to make some terrible remark to someone because I was “angry” at something. I’ll usually type it out and then look at my screen at what I wrote and then erase it. I think taking the time to see what you’re actually writing and realizing that the person on the other side is an actual person can, in some ways, eliminate half-baked remarks and promote more constructive debate.