“Trolling” has unfortunately become an activity that is increasing day by day on the Internet . More and more people are engaged in this reproachable act of assaulting 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 particular community in which they are giving their opinion. They are characterized by having unknown identity and great activity on different Internet platforms.
We are going to discuss this topic to explain what «trolling» means on the Internet and in what kind or type of platforms do people who practice troll move. In addition, we will show you how you can avoid a troll.
What does the word “trolling” mean on the Internet?
Trolling is the action carried out by people called 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 a person who seeks to anger or disperse the thoughts and ideas of others through certain psychological practices based primarily on breaking the group thinking that empire characterizes the virtual community.
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These psychological practices can be 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, the main objective, or basic idea that a person who trolls has is to provoke negative and unintended reactions between their Internet peers.
Keep in mind that many times these people have the ability to go unnoticed in their comments, so be careful when we read hear comments that are initially out of focus.
What kind of platforms can be controlled in the digital world?
People who perform troll move in the digital world through different platforms that have as common characteristics the free access to comments from participants and the possibility of being able to comment 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 can find this kind of people who perform troll, since in the forums ideas are constantly exposed for their analysis and healthy discussion, generating a great flow of comments.
Many of these comments cannot verify the veracity of the information by the whirlwind they present, being a perfect scenario for a troll because they can tell lies difficult to detect.
People defending their ideas or moral principles are very exposed to receive provocative and irrelevant comments thus causing in each of them a adverse and psychologically negative reaction .
When ideas are presented outside the topic that groups the forum, clashes between the same members are made for no reason, because we are in the presence of a troll.
In online games
Online games make trolls easier for different reasons, but the main one is because their identity is reserved, that’s why they feel stronger psychologically and consider that they have nothing to lose.
In this way he facilitates his narcissism causing the constant generation of ideas that can annoy, provoke and annoy gamers.
In addition, trolls know that, by having the focus of attention on the game, our mind intuitively lowers its protective barriers and becomes more vulnerable to such detestable actions.
Is trolling a form of cyberbullying?
When a person performs troll, in short, what he is doing is having a sadistic intention towards another, attacking him in a psychological (and sometimes physical) way so that he feels much inferior to his 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 ensuring that the person or member of that community is isolated and then can attack her emotionally, it is to say what she is doing is a cyberbullying.
Consequences of trolling Can I hurt someone by trolling him?
A person who performs trolling can generate very large and irreparable psychological damage in others.
This is due to the ability to manipulate a troll and make a helpless person psychologically their victim of the attack.
When a person is attacked through their psychology, they can produce changes in their behavior in general, family and social isolation, inclination for substances such as drugs or alcohol, appearance of the symptoms of depression and presence low self-esteem and in some cases you can resort to suicide.
That is why we must always keep in mind that a person who performs troll causes damage to others .
How to fight the trolls so they don’t bother you never?
It should be borne in mind that this is a very sensitive issue and that it is present in many places today and as such it should have a lot of attention from us to avoid falling into the traps of those who trolle.
To fight the trolls we can follow these tips:
- Ignore them , that may be the most efficient way to eliminate people who trolle.
- Block them from our social networks , in this way they will not have access to our information and we will not know what their comments are.
- Report them in a public way before the group or virtual community and in some more serious cases , resort to justice.
- Identify them in the forums , in social networks or in video games since this will help other members to be careful with their comments outside place.
- Discuss this situation with people close to us, since they will have a different perspective and can help us a lot.
- Always keep in mind that these nefarious comments do not represent the reality of ourselves, but are ideas or strategies of unscrupulous people and manipulators.