Digital Citizenship 3: Trolling & Social Media Conflict
What is a troll?
If you have been on the internet long enough, chances are you have stumbled upon the words, you just got trolled bro. Now what does this mean? We first have to explain what an internet troll is, an internet trolls are people with the deliberate act, of making random unsolicited and/or controversial comments on various internet forums with the intent to provoke an emotional knee jerk reaction from unsuspecting readers to engage in a fight or argument. In short, someone who bad mouths someone to get them to react and get a kick out of it. Sometimes trolls can mean harmless things but there are some extreme ones that get pure satisfaction from seeing someone suffer from their acts and it can get messy and ugly. Sometimes, trolls give birth to trolls a number of people have said that, the reason they started trolling others, is because they got trolled first (Kubota 2017).
How to deal with a troll
In theory, the best way to stop someone from trolling you is to just completely ignore them, because they thrive on getting a reaction from you, they want to see you get frustrated and retaliate in anger so with that in mind, if you completely ignore them, they will eventually give up and go troll someone else. In order to stop the cycle, one must not give into trolls.
Does Internet/social media governance work?
Yes and no, yes that governance does help to minimize some damage done by internet trolls as their main goal is feed on misery and suffering as well as the anger of others. There have been cases where by people have trolled and cyber bullied people until the point that the target has committed suicide from these acts so, with the help of internet social media governance, by creating and limiting a cyberspace whereby users are safe from these people does actually help. No whereby even if the internet or social media were to be limited and governed, it would not guarantee safety from said trolls. Take for example China, China has limited the access of their internet as well as social media platforms but that has not stopped trolls from doing what they love most, where it be at their own local social medias or forums, to even using things such as VPNs (Virtual Private Network) to access the rest of the internet, trolls will always find a way no matter what you do.
Are certain platforms more susceptible to trolling and hate?
Obviously there are places bound to have more trolls than others, take for example 4Chan, 4Chan is said to be the home of the anons and trolls so with that in mind, that platform is more subjected to trolls and hate speech here and there.
Is social media trolling ever a productive practice?
Honestly, no, the art of trolling is to get someone frustrated and mad so its quite a no brainer question but than again, the person who is doing the trolling might find it so as to them it is a productive way of having some laughs and giggles.
Why do people troll?
Now this question has already been answered but the reason I am asking this question not as to the reason why they do it but why not? Freedom of speech has come along way and with that, the way we use it has changed as well, because we are now sitting in front computers, we are not afraid of what we say anymore to per say someone half across the world, unless they have a way of tracking you, there are no consequences and that is the reason why people troll as the internet has given them that opportunity to say whatever they want and not think about the consequences of their actions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, just because someone has trolled you in the past, does not mean you should do the same thing to someone else, remember violence can only give birth to violence and trolls only give birth to trolls, do the right thing and end the cycle of trolls and remember, even though you are just sitting there in front of your computer typing comments on peoples wall and videos, your actions have consequences and you should always remember the person you are commenting on is human just like you.
References
Kubota, T 2017, Stanford Research Shows that Anyone can Become an Internet Troll, StanfordNews, viewed 26 October 2018, <https://news.stanford.edu/2017/02/06/stanford-research-shows-anyone-can-become-internet-troll/>.