Weird Question - What Are "trolls" ?

[violetclouds]

I keep seeing the term 'trolls' on the website and just wonder - what are 'trolls'?

 

[Eedara]

it's a term to describe a person who enjoys annoying other people. They post hateful, stupid, or annoying nonsense onto websites just to get a reaction out of other people. They think its funny when they make someone angry.

 

[violetclouds]

oh okay I see - why would someone want to do that in a place like this ? How cruel that is - guess that is the world we live in - so sad. Thanks for explaining - sorry for the dumb question.

 

[Eedara]

asking questions shows intelligence. There's no such thing as a stupid question when it is asked with sincere curiosity. And I agree, trolls have no life, they are cruel. They are the stupid ones.

 

[Friday]

They're also usually kids, though sometimes adults. It's the modern 12yo version of crank calling people to ask if their refrigerator is running? Better go catch it!!! Or ding dong dash.

 

[Tanishq]

@FridayJones very true. :laugh:

 

[RussH]

if you would like a comic answer; I live in michigan. It is a state made up of two pensinulas, the upper and the lower. The two peninsulas are connected by a bridge, the Mackinac bridge. All the upper peninsula citizens refer to the lower pensinula people as trolls because we live below the bridge.

 

[Go Hungry]

oh okay I see - why would someone want to do that in a place like this ? How cruel that is - guess that is the world we live in - so sad.

It's psychopathy, pure and simple. Trolls have been found to score high on personality traits involving psychopathy, narcissism, and particularly sadism. It boils down to the fact that trolls find pleasure in causing distress and torment to others, IE classic abusers.

 

[Friday]

It's psychopathy, pure and simple.

I'd had to disagree with that...,for a couple of reasons

1) Psychopathy I & II (psychopath v sociopath) aren't diagnosable in children, for the very good reason that most qualify... if we use adult standards, multiple times, during normal cognitive & emotional development. Empathy is a learned behavior. Just because most toddlers don't possess empathy doesn't make them sociopaths. It makes them toddlers! Who are learning. Same thing, the narrowed self focused world that most children and teens tend to live in doesn't make them a bunch of narcissists. It makes them kids and teenagers. Super plastic brains. It doesn't mean that there aren't super sick kids out there... There are, for sure... But if we try and apply adult standards to the whole? It simply doesn't work. By those guidelines, all kids should immediately be locked away or put to death.

2) Reading through the study (skimming) there's a recurrent problem of question bias, as well as extrapolating what they expect to find instead of looking for other causation. For example

(Trolls identified ) by simply asking survey participants what they “enjoyed doing most” when on online comment sites, offering five options: “debating issues that are important to you,” “chatting with others,” “making new friends,” “trolling others,” and “other.” & self identifying with the following statements: I have sent people to shock websites for the lulz. / I like to troll people in forums or the comments section of websites. / I enjoy griefing other players in multiplayer games
.

In many online communities... This is the expected standard of behavior! Trolls and Griefers are part of normalized game play. It's the villain role in modern day cops & robbers. There's absolutely nothing cruel about it, or most of the people who take on that role for their normal character or trade on and off. It doesn't cause distress/torment, at least no more than any other game with opponents causes. (Be it a goalie who blocks your shot, or sliding down a chute in chutes and ladders, etc.). Most people do generally prefer to be the hero / white hat in games sort of in general... But especially amongst teen & young adult boys (happens in both sexes across all age ranges, but one finds a lot of horseplay in this particular group), it's often outright hilarious how often & how well they're pranking each other. Yogscast is a pretty classic example of the style I'm talking about... Even though they're mostly 20s/30s & mixed sex.

____

So you've got bored kids playing around, totally unaware of the effects their actions are causing to others (be it crank calls & ding dong dash.., or trolling a forum) as well as kids/adults participating in normalized game play... And somehow the study wants to totally undifferentiate between just those two things alone (plus other problems) and diagnose people off of survey questions? I've just got problems with their methodology & conclusions.

 

[whserenitynluv]

So you've got bored kids playing around, totally unaware of the effects their actions are causing to others (be it crank calls & ding dong dash.., or trolling a forum) as well as kids/adults participating in normalized game play... And somehow the study wants to totally undifferentiate between just those two things alone (plus other problems) and diagnose people off of survey questions? I've just got problems with their methodology & conclusions.

My t and I had a discussion about paths and who they are last night, because I was being called narcissistic and a troll at one point, and that was painful. The problem with me being part of the category is my empathy level, and the fact to hurt on purpose was funny. One of the reasons I ran so far away was because I didn't want to hurt someone. Have I been a troll who sits in one place and distracts online, yes. I've also posted things inappropriate that hurt people but not on purpose. She said that the behavior and my reactions online were to the point we needed to do a cleanse and restart to the public profiles. Say the emotions to the people who you felt them for instead of passively aggressively doing it from afar. In that alone make some not narcissistic. A narcissist is unwilling to change their ideas usually, because they find it ok to do what they do without remorse. I have also read articles on the topic vs ptsd and found a super good article on this topic. Ptsd relationsionships website t was a great read if your interested. My online behavior is my homework this week, and I'm excited you brought this up because I've only been active in the social media for maybe a little over a year and am starting over, new profiles, real people and events. Anyone had to change it all and start over?

 

[The Albatross]

From Wiki: "Application of the term troll is subjective. Some readers may characterize a post as trolling, while others may regard the same post as a legitimate contribution to the discussion, even if controversial. Like any pejorative term, it can be used as an ad hominem attack, suggesting a negative motivation."

Also: "Early incidents of trolling were considered to be the same as flaming, but this has changed with modern usage by the news media to refer to the creation of any content that targets another person. The Internet dictionary NetLingo suggests there are four grades of trolling: playtime trolling, tactical trolling, strategic trolling, and domination trolling. The relationship between trolling and flaming was observed in open-access forums in California, on a series of modem-linked computers. CommuniTree was begun in 1978 but was closed in 1982 when accessed by high school teenagers, becoming a ground for trashing and abuse.

Some psychologists have suggested that flaming would be caused by deindividuation or decreased self-evaluation: the anonymity of online postings would lead to disinhibition amongst individuals. Others have suggested that although flaming and trolling is often unpleasant, it may be a form of normative behavior that expresses the social identity of a certain user group. According to Tom Postmes, a professor of social and organisational psychology at the universities of Exeter, England, and Groningen, The Netherlands, and the author of Individuality and the Group, who has studied online behavior for 20 years, "Trolls aspire to violence, to the level of trouble they can cause in an environment. They want it to kick off. They want to promote antipathetic emotions of disgust and outrage, which morbidly gives them a sense of pleasure."

 

[whserenitynluv]

Ok wiki is a hand written document , although I read and appreciate the feedback. It's not scientific, maybe I need to do more research. Most of the time I'm good with my posts they are lelated to my beliefs of what I'm studying. Although I've flirted that way too, but that was before my recovery, and should have been private, I've also posted my emotions and that was inappropriate. I'm still not sure what that affected, one time I felt like I ruined someone over it, but it wasn't funny to me I cried and felt like a jackass, and I also thought they had fun two as they cross referenced to it. You have no idea how bad I want to at least make amends for that, but I lost that friends and that friend reacted like" huh" when they knew it was going on. This person would have immediately said hey dick stop that shit I'm not interested? Anyway , I'll research it more thanks because this situation I need to find an amends for and I have no idea how because I'm blocked out of their life. Not saying that was for me but it rings to things I need to take care of. Thank you!