Don’t Feed the Trolls

This week seemed like the week of the trolls, upon checking, it was a full moon this week. That being said, trolls in social media are a pretty big problem on a regular basis. It happens everywhere: rude comments on blog posts disguised as thoughtful responses, mean tweets to grab attention, grandstanding to disrespect another person, YouTube comments that are just plan hateful. Why does this happen?

I feel that people hide behind their screen and say things that they would never say face-to-face. Clearly, one thing that ALL trolls have in common is that the are seeking attention. Here are some resources for you for this week’s Fab Five Friday on how to handle trolls:

The Sad Truths of Internet Trolls by Amy Gabriel
Five Ways to Deal with Internet Trolls by Robert Glen Fogarty for Lockergnome
12 Most Telling Characteristics of a Social Media Troll by Sam Fiorella
Trolls in the Hood
The Ultimate Internet Troll’s Dickhead Rating Chart by Diana Adams

And one more for good measure: 12 Most Offensive Habits on Social Media by Becky Gaylord

Jimmy Kimmel had celebs mean read tweets, here are the results.

My suggestions:

Do not let them negatively affect you.
Don’t take the bait and argue. I think you’ll regret that later.
Do what feels right for you but know that you don’t need to take the abuse. If it feels mean and hurtful to you, it is most likely mean and hurtful.
Block them.
Ignore them.
Remember these people are a very small percentage of the population and you can control your interaction with them.

How to do handle these situations? Have you had problems with trolls?

Featured image courtesy of Schwarzerkater via Creative Commons.

Article by Peg Fitzpatrick

susansilver

1 Like

I have to admit, that I stay away from things like Youtube commenting because of Trolls. I do not have a thick skin about that sort of thing. I am an easy target. I ignore, I am not part of that sub culture and I know better than to fight back.

I love the celebrities read mean tweet series!

PegFitzpatrick

@susansilver The Jimmy Kimmel series is funny but it really does make you wonder why people think and write such mean things. Celebs and even internet famous people like @JessicaNorthey and Guy Kawasaki get all kinds of crazy stuff tweeted and commented on their posts. Did you catch the 12 Most Jessica wrote about the crazy things people tweeted her? http://12most.com/2011/08/01/12-offthewall-questions-people-asked-twitter/

YouTube seems to be the meanest crew that I have seen and the people don't even make rational arguments just a lot of ranting.

susansilver

@PegFitzpatrick @JessicaNorthey The worst is probably 4chan. I have read the things that go on their. It is all anon so people just let loose. Strangely though they are also the birth place of almost every meme ever. That is why I just stick to reading it from "Know Your Meme". Much safer *lol* Going to read that post.

The scary part is, that as technology gets better people won't be able to hide. There will always be privacy nuts and hackers. They might get away with it. For the most part the average person can be found. I just treat everything I do or say as a public statement that will haunt me forever.

PegFitzpatrick

@susansilver It is a fairly complicated, technical world we are in and yes, there will always be people who will get around it.

I have heard that about 4Chan as well, I don't go there but I will let it's reputation precede itself in this case.

Exactly this >> "I just treat everything I do or say as a public statement that will haunt me forever." This would be a great 12 Most!