Internet Trolls

[Icey!]

We are all aware about internet trolls, they will comment on your post to get you wiled up to get a dopamine rush when you respond! So the best response would be none at all.

However, considering Trolls are a big part of the internet I think it would make a good discussion!

How has your experience been with Trolls, or maybe how your experience is with actually trying to troll!

[Memory]

Funnily enough, I've never encountered a troll personally. As in I've seen them interact with others online, but I've never had the displeasure of talking to one myself. Maybe it's because I tend not to join public discussions online and simply tend to screenshot and laugh at bad takes with my friends privately. If I were to interact with a troll, I think I'd simply just not engage. It'd nice having that control, I think, and I know that that's typically what you're told to do. Usually, when I see them in the wild, I have this pang of upset wondering why they feel the need to upset or otherwise annoy others online for... What gain? I'm not sure I'll ever fully understand genuine "trolls". They can be really malicious too! Like with swatting and such... Some of them are quite scary, and I will admit that part of the reason I hesitate to have any sort of large online public presence is because of trolls.

I've also never tried to be a troll lol. Unless you count jokingly doing so with friends, in which case I did it today when my friend was complaining about how difficult a game was and I responded with "skill issue :D". That sort of harmless trolling among people you're close with is fine I think!

[Memory]

On rare occasions I have to deal with them. In most cases they're blatant so I just ban them on the spot. However some are not as obvious and take some time to come to the realization that they're a troll. Thankfully though, few are on IRC since most moved onto platforms like Twitter and Discord since those two allow them to get their desires fulfilled faster and in larger amount.

As for interacting with them, DON'T. There's an old saying online that's sadly almost rarely mentioned anymore: Don't feed the trolls.

[Absentmind]

I used to be one when I was a teenager (circa 2005-2015 i'd probably say) I just would shout horrible things at people on Xbox Live or just try my best to wind people up whenever I could. Think It all started when my irl friend used to pretend to be a girl on MSN messenger and RAT people with Trojans he made and we used to just mess with peoples computers. Looking back now I regret it, I used to say and do some pretty hurtful things that I am not proud of. It wasn't until later in life when I reflected on what I was doing did I realise how awful I was being, All it does is make people miserable, including yourself. Obviously I was very different irl, I was quiet and shy. There is this psychological theory called the "Online disinhibition effect" where people feel like they can be their "true selves" with the guise of anonymity protecting them. Look it up! it goes both ways ofc, and I feel into the toxic side of things.

So if you ever encounter a troll, just ignore them, they're probably hurting on the inside too and second you react in anyway, they've "won".

I hope my wizened words are of help 

[Gans]

Hm, all your examples of trolling are so... blunt! But hey, everyone has to start somewhere.

If something provokes you, it tells you a lot about yourself. Things, that you can get aware of, but sometimes it needs that exterior impulse.

I still enjoy trolling, but more in a nonsensical way. Never intended as harrasment, that would give bad vibes. So beware of me!

[urgellx]

I'm a bit unsure on this topic.

I've had a lot of interaction with "trolls" online over the few years that i've
been allowed to roam the net freely. It's a weird thing, sometimes you just end
up feeling like everything in a situation is just a very surreal dream and
sometimes you just end up feeling bad.
   Trolling to me is just there to poison the well.

Most of the time, it's just there to waste time and annoy you, sometimes, it's
genuinely harmful (like awhe mentioned with swatting) or with doxxing, so
making what they view as mistakes or acts of bad faith online and leaving a
large footprint that's traceable without carefully selecting what you post is
maybe going to ruin your day or your week, or your year.

I do think that fighting mocking,
non-pleasant internet people legally or morally will probably end up making
them more vicious, you just have to see what led to the creating of 8ch in the
US or Avenoel in France (yes, it's more tame that 8 but it's still a more
extreme version of the 18/25 from JVC that began gaining popularity when people
went after the 18/25 on the media and it was temporarily disabled, just like
(from what i understand) 8 began gaining popularity after the users got annoyed
with the original forum and the fact that people tried to regulate them). It's
like a vicious cycle, they're here, but if you try to remove a large group of
trolls from the internet, they just get more extreme in their way of
interacting.

But i don't know any magic solution so i won't lecture people over the approach
they take towards this kind of mentality.

Now that's the trolls that i find really useless / stupid, i don't think that
annoying people with a certain way of thinking without stepping too much
outside of what's commonly accepted online is a very bad thing, even
shock websites don't seem like that much of a problem to me now.
-----

But it's more like :

• spiteful people

are very likely going to almost always be irrespectful with their online account.

• normal righteous people

are likely to attack someone viciously if they feel like they have enough support
to do so without consequences.

• inoffensive / junk trolls

are just going to try to get a reaction out of you, just ignore them.
-----

To me, all of them are bad / not needed to have an healthy community online
or in real life. I feel like every time there's an argument with the "social media"
type of person, it's going to be vicious on both side of the argument until they
get a reality check.
   To me, they can be both considered "trolls".

It also exists in real life, it's more of a mentality than a personality trait.
   You just want to halt an argument that you're losing ?
Just be spiteful and troll-ish ! Don't explain calmly, just get angry !
Not to say that a reduction to pure absurdity is bad by itself, it's just the way
you convey it.


EDIT ADDENDUM :

By "lot of interaction" means that i've been both on the receiving and giving end,
a few years ago, i'd do petty trolling on games without really having any serious
effect, it was mainly seeing people insult me, threaten to r**e me or my parents,
threaten to dox me or destroy my internet, so i'm not throwing the first stone or
shaming anyone here, i'm just as flawed.

[starbreaker]

I sometimes like to troll people who have trolled me first. I don't mind playing with them, and it might keep them from trolling other, more vulnerable people for a little while.

[zanarkand]

in my younger days on tumblr and twitter i used to be really susceptible to trolls because i would get so mad at people saying awful things and try to argue with them and it was such a waste of time and it made me so angry all time time! luckily i learned that it wasn't worth it and was just making me upset for no reason so i just screenshot the dumb things they say and send them to friends in the group chat for general mockery. don't feed the trolls!

[Memory]

Trolling in general seems to be part of that whole epidemic of guys whose world view strongly considers weakness, vulnerability, gullibility or emotional engagement something to be ridiculed and exploited.

Think of the concept of "coolness" itself: the ideal cool person is someone who shows no emotion in face of emotional situations, suppresses his empathy, does not feel particularly strong one way or another, and lets nothing impact him negatively. Emotions are weakness, crying is uncool, being different is attention-seeking, being empathetic to women is being a simp, and so on.

Typical internet trolling contains a lot of that: "u mad? y u so mad bro", "triggered", "cringe", "cuck", "simp", "its just a joke bro why you so mad bro". Their targets include people who threaten their world view: people who are happy with being different, vulnerable, empathetic or have strong opinions about things (like trans people, progressives, furries, kids,...) and do not subscribe to their idea of a respectable human whose life is focused on competition and the bullying hierarchy.

The thing is, it's all projection. They are so afraid of being vulnerable or feeling inferior themselves (because other people like them might take advantage of that and humiliate, ridicule or bully them) that they constantly need to reassert themselves by offensively bullying others and reinforcing how cool they are compared to them. They are scared that the other side is right and they were wrong.

I know this feeling well. After I de-transitioned because I could not live being someone who other people laugh at or feel superior to anymore, I went through a phase of actual internalized transphobia where I shirked anything off me that could be misconstrued as emotional, trans, vulnerable, shy... I threw away all my clothing, suppressed my romantic identity, stopped trying to be cute (even the thought itself makes me nauseous these days), and went back to a completely generic socially compatible personal style, stopped interacting with queerness or queer people. And it even made me project this self-hatred on other queer people who could be happy in their identities (while I couldn't);  I started considering them "cringe" and criticizing every single bit about their looks, behaviour... it's very easy to go down that pipeline out of complete insecurity.

It's what entire hate sites are built on. Young men and boys confused and scared about showing emotions that they lash out preemptively to protect themselves.

[Gans]

From the perspective of a trolled one, now what to do? That's undeniably something to learn from the internet: Get on with your stuff. The grounded "reality check" is very useful here. Sharp you sense for what really is going on. Those trolling comments are just written to annoy you. In that regard, a certain amount of "coolness" is a good thing to have and that can be exercised.

Being offended by every tiny bit, well... that makes a very hard time being on the internet to be honest. That approach feels wrong in such a widespread environment. Rather dump the idiots before reacting at all and carry on, that's how it works better.

Agree on your explanation of the bully being insecure deep down. That's the truth behind the veil.

[andou]

we have such limited time on planet earth, trolling feels like such a waste of time. for the trolls it's a waste. for the people REPLYING to the trolls it's a waste! it's all just so annoying to me.

if someone tries to troll me, i just don't reply and block them. i don't have time to waste on petty games. i think the closest i'll come to replying to a troll is to screenshot it if it is a TRULY ridiculous statement and be like "get a load of this bozo". but even then, a direct response is pretty much out of the question for me. i have better things to do.

i'm 100% desensitized to trolls at this point. streaming on twitch is half of my full time work, so i've seen everything under the sun. i'm in love with the "ban" button. 

[CableCat]

It's what entire hate sites are built on. Young men and boys confused and scared about showing emotions that they lash out preemptively to protect themselves.

This whole comment is really insightful, but I'm only quoting this encompassing section.

My recent experience with trolls is in a particular chat server with a "shitposting" channel for memes, and well, shitposts. It is the only channel in the server where they allow things to go largely unregulated. The rest is all centered around a niche information technology hobby. So the server discussions give the impression that the hobby and server are filled mostly with young men ages 13-30's. There is a lot of blatant misogyny.

But the server has a rule that all discussion of politics and/or religion must be in the shitposting channel only. So it adds an emotionally distant air of "nobody cares about your opinions or will take them seriously" because "everything is a meme/shitpost". And that kind of environment is a ripe breeding ground for people to say the most unhinged, misogynistic, racist, homophobic, discriminatory, and even borderline N*zi things and get away with it. All because that channel is basically a free-for-all that the mods don't touch. Knowing the way the mods are, I want to believe that if someone posted about their intent to take action based on their terrible opinions, they'd report it. But if no action is matched with the opinion in that one channel, it is basically allowed to stay up. Like someone could repeatedly say "All _______ deserve to die horrible fiery deaths" (insert literally any group) and it would not get taken down no matter how blatant the hate. It is like a combo of venting, trolling, meme, and alt-right chat rooms.

If you post in that channel you will get trolled, and then someone else with troll them. It is an ouroboros where hate is allowed to fester.

I stay in the server with that channel muted, and I occasionally check in without responding because it exposes me to a different demographic with totally different ideas. I can get an impression for how they respond to and think about different things. On my end, it's a "get to know your enemy" situation. I got into the whole server for the hobby, and that's what matters most to me. But the opportunity to observe people "in the wild" whose behavior I absolutely condemn is like a golden opportunity. Because anyone can descend into hatred and biases if pushed far enough. And sometimes these people will reveal nuggets about how they were hurt in the past, or why they think something is true that is demonstrably false. They show the cracks in their "logic" where all their thoughts hinge on emotional or trauma responses.

I don't troll them back, I just watch and learn.

I think "trolling" in modern times (what I am exclusively referring to in my post) has become a veneer or cover for expressing extreme hate. Back in the day, it seemed trolls were normal people who used hateful statements they didn't truly believe in an ironic way with the intention of instigating people to partake in schadenfreude when the other person got riled up and hurt. Now, trolling seems to have been co-opted by people who actually hold truly extreme and dangerous, hateful opinions, and want to lash out freely but they know they're being hateful and that people will respond so they downplay it as classic trolling so they go unchecked and unconfronted. Same tactics, troll wins in both classic and modern trolling if you respond. But it's a totally different underbelly imo.