“Trolling” has unfortunately become an activity that is increasing day by day on the Internet. More and more people are engaged in this reprehensible act of attacking and provoking different people belonging to a virtual community.
Trolls are manipulative and provocative people whose objective is to alter or spy on the conversations that exist under a group thought of the certain community in which they are giving their opinion. They are characterized by having an unknown identity and great activity on different Internet platforms.
We are going to deal with this topic to explain what it means “troll” on the Internet and on what kind or type of platforms people who practice trolling move. Also, we will teach you how you can avoid a troll.
What does the word “troll” mean on the Internet?
Trolling is the action carried out by people who call themselves trolls in a discussion forum or in comments on publicly accessible articles. These people may or may not have a known identity.
A troll is someone who seeks to anger or disperse the thoughts and ideas of others through certain psychological practices based mainly on breaking the group thinking that characterizes the virtual community.
These psychological practices can be performing provocative phrases, commenting on irrelevant ideas or outside the central theme of the group as well as using humor to divert conversations and cause chaos among the different members.
That is to say, the main objective, or basic idea that a person who trolls has is to provoke negative and ill-intentioned reactions among his Internet peers.
We must bear in mind that many times these people have the ability to go unnoticed in their comments, so we must be careful when we read or listen to comments that are initially out of focus.
On what kind of platforms can you troll in the digital world?
People who carry out troll move in the digital world through different platforms that have as common characteristics the free access to comments of the participants and the possibility of being able to express their opinions without restrictions.
Next, we will name the main ones:
In social networks
It is one of the places where there are more possibilities to make annoying and provocative comments, since social networks allow us to comment on photos or videos of people and open debates on ideas raised by account owners of these networks.
in forums
Perhaps it is the most controversial and at the same time comfortable place that this class of people who carry out trolling can find, since ideas are constantly exposed in the forums for their analysis and healthy discussion, generating a great flow of comments.
Many of these comments the veracity of the information cannot be verified because of the maelstrom they present, being a perfect scenario for a troll because they can tell lies that are difficult to detect.
When people defend their ideas or moral principles, they are very exposed to receiving provocative and irrelevant comments, thus causing in each one of them a adverse and psychologically negative reaction.
When ideas off-topic that groups the forum are exposed, confrontations take place between the same members for no reason, it is because we are in the presence of a troll.
in online games
Online games make it easier for trolls for different reasons, but the main one is because their identity is reserved, which is why they feel psychologically stronger and consider that they have nothing to lose.
In this way, it facilitates their narcissism, causing the constant generation of ideas that can anger, provoke and annoy gamers.
In addition, the trolls know that, by having the focus of attention on the game, our mind intuitively lowers its protective barriers and becomes more vulnerable to this kind of detestable actions.
Is trolling a form of cyberbullying?
When a person performs a troll, in short, what they are doing is having a sadistic intention towards another, attacking them psychologically (and sometimes even physically) so that they feel much inferior to their attacker and at the same time can be manipulated.
With provocative comments, the troll manages to generate a confrontation and anger among the members of a virtual community, thus making the person or member of that community isolate themselves and later be able to attack them emotionally, it is Saying what you are doing is cyberbullying.
Consequences of trolling Can I hurt someone by trolling them?
A person who trolls can cause very large and irreparable psychological damage to others.
This is due to the ability of a troll to manipulate and turn a psychologically defenseless person into his attack victim.
When a person is attacked through their psychology, it can produce changes in their behavior in general, family and social isolation, inclination for substances such as drugs or alcohol, appearance of symptoms of depression and presence of low self-esteem and in some cases suicide may be resorted to.
That is why we must always keep in mind that a person who trolls causes harm to others.
How to fight trolls so they never bother you?
It must be borne in mind that this is a very delicate subject and that it is present in many places today and as such must receive a lot of attention from us so as not to fall into the traps of those who troll.
To combat trolls we can follow these tips:
- ignore themthat may be the most efficient formula to eliminate people who troll.
- block them of our social networks, in this way they will not have access to our information and we will not know what their comments are.
- denounce them in a public way before the group or virtual community and in some more serious cases, resort to justice.
- Identify them in the forumson social networks or in video games as this will help the other members to be careful with their inappropriate comments.
- Discuss this situation with people close to us, since they will have a different perspective and can be very helpful to us.
- Always keep in mind that these nefarious comments do not represent reality of ourselves, but are ideas or strategies of unscrupulous and manipulative people.
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