What's The Deal With Trolls? Why Do they Exist?
First of all I would like to credit my main source of information that I used in this article. John Rampton - 15 Truths About Online Trolls for entrepreneur.com, but I would also like to offer my own insight into the dark realm of trolls.
First before I continue I have to define what a troll is. As per wikipedia (I think it is alright to quote wikipedia for a general overview)
"An internet troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion, often for their own amusement."
With the recent purge of visibility of many of the trolls who were starting to pop up, I felt it would be interesting to take a look at some of the statistics and reasons that trolls even exist. Some things you may already be familiar with, but hopefully you will learn quite a bit as well, as most of us have probably never stopped to put ourselves in the shoes (probably large and grungy) of an internet troll.
14 Interesting Tidbits About Trolls
1. The term troll encapsulates a number of different behaviors on the internet
There are trolls who just like to disrupt the flow of a chat on a forum for fun, but there are also trolls who are hateful, malicious or just spam a forum/social media account with repeated posting of meaningless drivel (not unlike some of the spam bots that were posting in every introduceyourself post). There are also trolls that are genuinely funny, an example to me are those who when asked on youtube what song is this reply "Darude - Sandstorm." While not causing any real harm, this is essentially a minor if humorous form of trolling. Realizing the different types of trolls should allow you to respond or not respond at all.
2. Trolls tend to have “Dark Tetrad” personality traits
According to psychologists Erin Buckels, Paul Trapnell and Delroy Paulhus “trolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism,” which are a part of the “Dark Tetard” of personality traits. “Sadism means delighting in the harm of others, psychopathy is an antisocial personality disorder, and Machiavellianism means a person’s tendency to be unemotional and deceitful.” So essentially the trademarks of a troll are those who show little emotion, are loners, and enjoy harming others (in this case through verbal abuse or degradation).
3. You or your friends may be a troll or have trolled
According to a YouGov study of 1,125 adults, “28 percent percent of Americans admitted (to) malicious online activity directed at somebody they didn’t know.” That's over one in four for this study (and the number may be higher since you never know exactly how truthful people may be). A lot of this is done to strangers with whom people may either dislike or just wish to agitate, possibly without anyone really knowing your true identity
4. You may not actually be dealing with a troll
Some people who you may think are trolls are actually just strongly opinionated people. Just because the way they say something might seam harsh or mean to you, it doesn't automatically mean that they are a troll. You may just be extremely sensitive yourself and have a very strong opinion about something that prohibits you from seeing another viewpoint. Sometimes just being respectful and seeing if they have meaningful things to say may change your original position
5. Don't spend the time feeding the trolls
While trolls can be annoying to an online platform or social media service, you shouldn’t devote too much time in dealing with them. Many times you could spend days trying to get your point across without any real benefit. Instead, continue to offer the best product/service available and building a strong online community. Even if trolls come around and stir up trouble, they can never take away everything you’ve accomplished and being ignored is one of the best solutions for malicious trolls, since few enjoy not receiving any attention. With the amount of great whales, dolphins, and chubby minnows, there is a good chance that a few clicks will silence hateful trolls without you needing to debate with them.
6. Reserve special treatment for supporters
This is not my own tip, but provides a good insight by Tera Kristen, “Special treatment is reserved for the people who truly support you and share your vision.” Tera recalls the time she gave a troll a second chance after they were banned from posting on a Facebook page. The troll apologized and went right back to spamming the community. Instead of giving this individual special treatment, Tera should have been giving her supporters this type of extra attention. Trolls are digging their own graves by choosing the way they act. I am in support of giving people second chances, however in cases like this, I don't feel a second chance is warranted unless a troll proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that they have changed their ways.
7. Trolls can influence credibility
Expect a fair of amount of bashing or debate from people whenever you discuss a controversial or unfamiliar topic. While some members of the online community can harm your credibility, that shouldn’t influence your standing on the platform. One of my favorite features about steemit is that you can bring up controversial topics like religion, abortion, politics etc and have a debate as respectful adults with differing viewpoint. Now that the reputation system has been implemented, the way you say things becomes increasingly important. That shouldn't keep you from speaking your opinion, but belittling, insulting or cursing at others is not beneficial in any sort of debate. I wish some of our politicians would also refrain from trying to slander other members, but politics is a hotbed for trolls. One may very well become president of the United States.
8. Young people are most likely to be harassed
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, "The 18-29 age demographic experiences the highest level of online harassment. In fact, 65 percent have been called an offensive name, been purposefully embarrassed, physically threatened, stalked, or sexually harassed.
The study also found young women experience severe forms of online harassment more than men, such as being stalked or sexually harassed." While I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on steemit, I was the victim of what I will call trolling. A user felt I was promoting another user for my own financial gain. This was not the case, but I was simply promoting the work of a friend whom I thought does excellent work consistently (
9. Most harassment takes place on social media networks
Another verbatim quote "Harassment occurs mainly on social networks and apps.
That same study from the Pew Research Center found “66 percent of Internet users who have experienced online harassment said their most recent incident occurred on a social networking site or app.” Other percentages of harassment on online environments include:
- 22 percent mentioned the comments section of a website.
- 16 percent said online gaming.
- 16 percent percent said in a personal email account.
- 10 percent mentioned a discussion site such as reddit.
- 6 percent said on an online dating website or app."
If you have the stomach for it an example of disgusting trolling can be found here in the comment section Rebecca Black Friday The anonymity of youtube creates a place where normal everyday people have the ability to post the meanest things they can think of with little to no repercussions. While I am not a fan of this song, the amount of hate this young girl got for it shows the sorry state of many in our society.
10. The question of anonymity
As I just touched on before, people almost unanimously agree that anonymity allows people to voice things they would almost certainly never do in public face to face with that same person. There is less trolling in places where you picture and name are linked to your account (unless you create a fake account). Places like facebook and instagram tend to have less problems with trolling than sites like redditt or 4chan because of the ability to hide behind a simple username.
11. The law is trying to catch up
Law professor Danielle Keats Citron states “Hateful, offensive and distasteful ideas enjoy constitutional protection.” The perpetrators can be investigated or sued, but with each state having it's own laws about abuse on third-party sites, it takes a lot of resources to make lawsuits happen. An interesting read about a girl encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide falls into a very interesting category as she was brought to court Article here. I can't imagine what goes through someones mind to follow through with this sort of despicable act.
12. Not all online systems deal with trolls appropriately
Many social media platforms are receiving negative press for the they handle trolling/harassment on their platforms. It becomes difficult to monitor all the content especially with social media giants like twitter and youtube. They have policies that show guidelines about what is allowed, but sometimes enforcing them is like playing whack-a-mole. Trolls pop up using different accounts and even the best intentioned moderator has trouble keeping up with cleaning up all the garbage that is spewn across many of the sites. I feel that steemit has set itself apart from the other major players with a few key features.
What sets steemit apart from other social media
- Having a reputation system where if you troll people can downvote you into grayed out obscurity and force people to intentionally try to see troller's comments
- The ability to make money. If a troll doesn't want to make any money here and is invisible I question what they are doing here
Steemit is truly founded by innovative creators in @dan and @ned and one of the first places that I have enjoyed corresponding in the comment section and have seen trolls be controlled and essentially purged (for now as they are a relentless bunch).
13. Trolls are humans too
Another example of what is possible with trolls can be read in the following paragraph. "As I mentioned earlier, trolls may have “Dark Tetard” personality traits, but you have to remember that they’re still human. Take what happened to writer Lindy West. After publicly discussing one of her cruelest trolls, Lindy received an apology via email. Not only did Lindy get an apology, this individual also donated $50 to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, where her father had been treated. She even talked to him for over two hours on an episode of This American Life where he explained his actions.
While this isn’t always the case, you have to remember that we’re all human and can sometimes let our emotions take over. Heckling someone online isn’t the answer to making people feel better about themselves, but it does show that not all trolls are terrible all the time." It shows that even the most vicious trolls have the chance to change their ways, but it takes a lot of work on their part to regain the trust to be viewed as a valuable member in the community. Trust is built over a long period of time, but can be instantly broken.
14. Trolls can be costly
Whether needing to pay for moderators, or creating software, the process of rendering trolls voiceless is a costly endeavor. According to a 2013 study published in Justice Quarterly, cyberstalking victims cost victims an average of $1,200 due to “legal fees, property damage, child care costs, moving expenses, or a change in phone number.” The most costly trolls however are patent trolls (More about them here). The Harvard Business Review found, “patent trolls cost defendant firms $29 billion per year in direct out-of-pocket costs; in aggregate, patent litigation destroys over $60 billion in firm wealth each year. While mean damages in a patent lawsuit ran around $50,000 (in today’s dollars) at the time the telegraph, mean damages today run about $21 million.”
I have personally learned quite a bit about what makes trolls tick and also why they decide to do what they do. While I am glad that steemit has rendered many of the trolls here invisible, I would urge people to continue to treat everyone respectfully even if they do not reciprocate the same respect towards you. It is my belief that trolls tend to be lonely broken people, or those looking for an outlet for anger that has built up inside them. If you are a troll and are reading this article, I'd encourage you to share your story with the community. Chances are they will be quite receptive and you may even make a friend who has been through a similar experience. While I won't feed trolls or be provoked by their tactics, I hope as a community that we can reach out to all that are struggling or hurting and show a support that they may have never seen before. This may not be easy, as I have seen some pretty disgusting posts about people mocking rape victims or similar types of abuse, but hopefully we can find it in our hearts to be the bigger person and walk the high ground without an air of arrogance toward trolls. People are all valuable regardless of how they act. Hope everyone else learned something from this article too.