The Trolls Among Us

Internet trolls are relentless individuals that can ruin peoples lives with just a few simple keystrokes.  They aim to cause chaos with what they say, post, or comment on.  These trolls are people that usually hide behind a fake name and can actually make living out of harassing individuals and making there lives miserable.  They will continue to badger and attack other individuals or groups over the internet until there reputation is damaged, life is ruined, or whatever other motive they have is fulfilled.  Since these individuals do there damage through conversations or or comments they make, the question that arises is- why are they so successful?  It should seem that ignoring these trolls would be easy and should make them go away but that it not the case at all. In an article by PC Mech Media, they describe ways to spot trolls and ways to defeat them. (http://www.pcmech.com/article/spot-defeat-internet-troll/)

Spotting a troll is usually easy.  You just have to look for the most negative person or the person who is giving out the most hatred.  These are the people in forums who attack several or one individual or repeatedly or the ones who's all social media is about attacking people in a negative way.  These are also the users who rarely have a picture and very little information associated with their accounts.  Although, some users who post these things have legitimate reason to do so.  In order to avoid labeling someone as a troll who isn't, you should do a little research on their related accounts and see if their is a history of the same behavior.  Usually, if you cant find anything else on them or there related accounts do show the same behaviors, you are  probably dealing with a troll.

Defeating troll is not so easy.  Although, there are some non-proffessional and less moral measures you can take to stop these trolls, there are also some good ways.  First, you must refrain from engaging with the troll. The troll may seem like its fine by luring you in at first, but you its actually waiting to abuse its power over the internet.  Before engaging with anyone you should research their conversations and any social media profiles.  Next, when engaging in conversations the trolls in them, ignore the troll completely.  Continue commenting and responding to everyone else who is not a troll but leave the troll out.  This defeats the power the troll is trying to obtain over you and eventually it will move on to someone else.  The best thing you can do is to ban a troll.  If you are the head of a forum, its your page they are commenting on, or its your website; you have the power to ban or block the troll.  This will deny any chance the troll has to instigate any problems with you or with people associated with you.

In conclusion, dealing with trolls is something we will all encounter several times as CMC continues to grow and become our main form of communication.  Knowing how to spot and handle these trolls can keep your internet identities and lives running smoothly. Many trolls are dedicated to their craft so be careful not to upset them too much or try to engage in "trolling the troll" or it will probably have negative consequences for you.  Happy trolling.