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Don't feed the trolls

SO MUCH info, so little time. Why waste mental energy engaging with trolls?

Why allow these disruptive creatures to sully the content of a decent article, prevent your brain retaining necessary and crucial business news or divert your attention when you’re simply enjoying a good read?

When I was growing up, trolls were scary, scabby grey creatures with very little brain called Tom and Bert who took delight in scaring dwarves, hobbits and humans.

They skulked around in the mountains at night and turned to stone when exposed to sunlight (see The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien).

I’ve a strong suspicion that today’s trolls, too, will turn to stone if forced out from behind their laptops and exposed to sunlight. And like their namesakes, they enjoy scaring people.

With the wonders of the interwebs comes the Dark Side: trolls, flamers, griefers and all the other nasties that skulk around online, causing at best measureable increases in blood pressure in online communities; at worst, their online stalking and provocation has been known to trigger suicides.

Many of us simply lump them all together as ‘trolls’; in fact, that’s not technically accurate. Other names are applied to those who set out to cause fear, panic and pain (‘bully’ seems entirely appropriate to me).

The troll is not a bully, per se; he or she is a person who responds to articles or other posters with comments that are provocative and created with the intention of making others on a discussion thread angry and frustrated.

They want to get a rise out of you, these people.

Trolls tend to be in their late teens, early twenties and thirties, although I’ve engaged with trolls of anything from 50 to 70. But whatever their age, they tend to be emotionally immature.

They’re in it for the attention (yes, negative attention too), the sense of power it gives them to create disruptions and volcanic reactions, undermining and even breaking up groups or discussions, or kicking over the traces and busting taboos – as in: “See, hiding behind my nom de plume Safferdude, I get to use the K-word, ha ha ha!”.

They’re after ‘lulz’ – the laughs they get out of ‘seeing’ someone half a world away melt down over a steaming keyboard as a result of their provocations. (See why I call them immature?)

Some do have a serious purpose: they want to spread disinformation (certain trolls have been unmasked as employees of companies or organisations with an agenda), to derail discussions which run counter to their worldview, to disseminate propaganda.

If you can’t eliminate the troll from your mental landscape, he or she can warp a subject for you.

You’ll be reading an interesting article on management, and following a thread of comments which adds value, when suddenly up pops a troll who picks on a small aside in one of the comments and says, “Typical feminazi comment from Alice.

"We all know the ladies want it both ways: they want the power and they want to be treated like delicate flowers, don’t they?”

All of a sudden, your mind is racing: you have to make a comment, and so do other people. A war starts and soon, you’ve forgotten the valuable info you originally absorbed – and you’ve wasted an hour of your time, you have a headache, and you replay the whole argument that night, grumbling at your wife while channel-surfing.

How to spot the species

Learn to recognise the troll:

• A troll often doesn’t read the whole article. Trolls skim until they reach a red-button word or phrase: racism; affirmative action; climate change; environment; feminist; abortion; religion; and… they’re off!

You’ll know this because you’ll find, as you read their postings, that you’re shrieking mentally: “But didn’t you READ what he said?” Don’t ever get lured into referring the troll back to the article, though; you’ll get a smart-alecking that includes not a trace of substance.

• A troll diverts the discussion right away from the main topic, as I said earlier. A column about investment in Croatian shorefront property suddenly finds itself teetering uncomfortably atop a long thread of heated comments about the death penalty.

• A troll makes huge, unsupported claims that make you gasp: “Scientists have demonstrated that obesity is a result of comfort eating – fat people are miserable and food is their drug of choice.”

• A troll will NEVER ever answer you straight. If you respond to the statement above by asking, quite reasonably: “Could you tell me where I can find the research you mention about obesity?”, a troll will respond: “You’re fat, aren’t you? Yup, you don’t want to confront the real reasons for your fat, do you?”

• And that demonstrates a key characteristic of troll-style: trolls play the man and not the ball. They get personal, deliver ad hominem attacks and call people names: “You’re such a sad sack, you moron.”

• They will conjure motives, agendas and incentives out of thin air: “Gym bunnies like you want people to sign up for over-priced gym contracts, instead of seeking the help they really need.”

What can you do about trolls? Simple. Keep calm and carry on – literally. Ignore them. The air they breathe is your reaction, your indignation. 

Step away from that keyboard, hands in the air, mister. “Don’t feed the trolls!”

 - Fin24

*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own.
 
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