Cyber Trolls

Cyber Trolls

by Elizabeth

originally posted Nov. 16. 2014 re-posted on Jan 16, 2015

theexpertinstitute.com

Often times I will find myself reading the comments after articles, post, or blogs on the internet more intently then I read the article attached. As a matter of fact, there are times I will only read half of the article or skim through it just to skip to the comments below. There have also been times when I read an article and find that they have locked out the comments so that no one can make a comment and I get so disappointed as I think to myself, "I just wasted all that time reading this article for nothing." There is something I think that draws us at times to read these comments like our lives depend on it. Sometimes we just want to know what other people think, or if anyone agrees with us. I never really leave comments but this force has drawn me in many so times and seems to have this powerful effect on most people. If you are wondering what draws us in and holds us tight between the computer coding of our favorite wed pages I think I have the answer. For me there can only be one explanation TROLLS yep that's right cyber trolls. Those wonderful masters of human manipulation, a con artist of our heart pixels, and those people we just quite frankly love to hate. They keep us up at night reading and commenting, complaining, angry, or laughing out loud. For those of you who don't know who trolls are or what trolling is here's how urban dictionary defines it

Trolling- Being a prick on the internet because you can. Typically unleashing one or more cynical or sarcastic remarks on an innocent by-stander, because it's the internet and, hey, you can. 

playingintheworldgame.wordpress.com

That pretty much sums up how a troll would even define what they do on the internet. I had the great pleaser of meeting a troller in person and they said, "I love to troll the internet and make people angry about nothing." They honestly think it is funny when an innocent bystander or bystanders gets emotional about something that doesn't even make sense or is their made up a comment just to get someone going. They love to try and turn the comments around sometimes to the point of being completely off topic. We know they are out there and yet we still fall victim to them walking right into their luring jaws.

 

Troll mentality

     Trolls are not innocent according to psychologist and in numerous studies done on personalities of "normal" people and people who like to troll. Trolls might tell you they just troll for fun, but in real life, they are nice to everyone, but once again they would be lying to you and maybe even themselves. Trolls are sadist psychopathic narcissists, who go on-line to perform their Machiavellianism on the masses. So why does this lure us in, why do we care so much about what a troll thinks, when sometimes we even know they are trolling. The answer can simply be put into two words social norms.


unearthedcomics.com

Social Norms

Social norms are defined by Princeton.edu as - "the behaviors and cues within a society or group. This sociological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors."" This is why we feel such a draw to speak out against what we would consider their social injustices. We have our social norms, we have a way in which we like to act and a way in which we would like the people around us to act. In  other words, we want our world to be safe and comfortable, or at least we want to think that it is safe and comfortable. When a troll comes along it shatters our illusions of this world where no one can think that bad, be that bad, and act that bad. Once we realize that they can be just as awful as we fear they can be we then want to speak out against them, because we don't want them to influence anyone else to think and act the way they do. Yes, we know they might be faking it and showing off on the computer trying to make people upset, but on the off chance that they aren't faking it and on the off chance that someone will listen to them and follow in their footsteps we feel like we have to say something.  So if we call them Cyber Trolls I guess we can call the people who defend cyber society against then Cyber Heroes.
  

Cyber Hero One by Christos http://optiknerve-gr.deviantart.com/