The sun rises in the east. The sky is blue. And some people are mean on the internet. So when I was faced with a relatively simple task – find some people who identify as trolls to interview for a story – the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
I put calls out on Twitter and Facebook. And in looking for trolls, I got trolled. I was given more suggestions for ways to screw myself than I could find in an edition of Cosmo magazine.
It’s perhaps a reflection on some of the lack of sophistication in the thinking of some trolls that you could be the subject of such hostility for trying to write a story that appeals to them, that speaks for their world view.
And in researching a story from their world view, I received nothing but directionless outrage.
Anonymity didn’t even need to come into it. They didn’t seem to have any problem putting their name to the digital excretia that landed on my Facebook wall, Twitter feed and email.
Until now the dominant theory about people on the internet has been normal person + anonymity + audience = total sh.tc..k (comic courtesy of Mike Krahulik & Jerry Holkins and is taken from their site penny-arcade.com). But is that changing in 2012?
Could trolling have less to do with anonymity and more to do with triggers?
Mention the words, “troll”, “asylum seeker”, “refugee”, “Gillard”, “Qantas”, “Apple”, “iPhone” or “religion” and you can bet your socks you’ll be spending your afternoon declining essay length comments spurting hot bubbling volcanos of crazy.
But perhaps what I’ve learned from all this is that without purpose or reason a troll’s mission is to try to make people angry, to incite reactions, to cause bemusement and confusion.
You can look for logic to it. For some there may be a reason, but you suspect for many trolls there is none.
Well played trolls. Well played.
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