Trolling is a Art

The internet has given us a plethora of tools that make regular life and society more convenient for everyone.  With the way in which people interact, it is mostly anonymous.  People are hidden behind screens, firewalls, proxies, and fake names.  When the internet first started out as black and white text, people used it for good.  It was just a simple message board of people posting recipes, asking advice, etc.  Once it became more widespread and proper user-friendly browser tools were invented, all common courtesy went out the window.  People realized that they could flame any user they wanted without any repercussions.  As a result, we have such communities as 4chan that take humanity down a level.

This is where the internet troll comes into play.  The term was coined on Urban Dictionary in 2002 as “One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.”  Basically they intentionally say something just to stir up an argument.  It’s essentially a virtual equivalent of a kid saying “made you look.”  This gives them pleasure, as some men just want to watch the world burn.

Some websites require personal details when posting or viewing anything, and others don’t.  As such, careful considerations must be taken when dealing with a large user base.  These websites do have options to report harassment, stalking, and general misconduct.  But that’s really all that can be done.  It’s too hard to scrutinize and data mine the actions of millions of users to figure out misconduct automatically.  Facebook constantly amends their terms of service to comply with user safety and privacy.  This is a moral obligation that these companies need to have; when millions of users trust you with hosting their private information, they should protect that information as much as possible.

Anonymity on the internet is both a good thing and a bad thing.  On one hand, it enables for users to not be afraid of judgment when posting anything.  However, there are always people who are only there to exploit the system.  Many sites tried to move to a “real name” system, but it didn’t really work, namely because you can input any name you want.  I can’t tell you how many commenters on YouTube use the name “Barack Obama”.  It’s a step in the right direction to deter trolls, except there still is anonymity if you choose.  Unless there is a constant webcam feed of the person at all times, there is no way for somebody to not be anonymous in this way.  The “real name” system is the only solution we can think of.

Trolls are a big problem on the internet to those who are unfamiliar with them.  It is pretty easy to recognize a troll based on their comment’s place and time.  If you feel the need to argue with them, just remember not to take things too seriously.  If they seem way out of line, it’s probably too stupid to be true.  However, an average person on Facebook probably doesn’t know how to recognize or handle trolls.  There really is no way to get rid of them, but they will always be there.  Just remember to not take anything too seriously.