As a result of my addiction to computers, I have witnessed quite a lot of situations where a "troll" was causing trouble, messing with people, and so on. In several of these situations, I have not really considered them to be trolling. Instead, I thought they were escalating their havoc to a level that just gets out of hand (insults, threats, blackmail, etc.). These trolls tend to say/do things that just end up being classified as cyber-bullying. Even though their actions can cause severe damage, we may still consider it as just trolling.
I am not sure about the mentality of a "true internet troll". I am not sure if they are doing it as some sort of revenge or if they are just being total jerks. However, I am sure these kinds of people on the Internet find this sort of thing amusing. They create a hostile environment for average users of social networking sites, online video games, forums, and more. Apparently, they find this sort of environment to be filled with action and entertainment, yet they do not realize that this is, in my opinion, an online world that many of us would not like to deal with.
So how do we fix this? trolls are able to accomplish their goals due to "online anonymity". They are able to create personas for themselves with ease. If they get banned from a social networking site, they can simply make a new account and continue to be a nuisance to their target. I believe the solution does not lie solely upon online security, but rather the mentalities of both the villain (the troll) and the victim. Aiming to extinguish the growing flame of trolls is nearly impossible (as a result of open expression and the human ego). What we CAN do is try to not give in to their desires. We can simply try our best to ignore their attacks and continue on with our lives. Although this may ruin our pride (in most cases only for the moment), it is an effort to distinguish the lines between "harassment" and "messing around".
To what extent would "trolling" be considered as "harassment" or "cyber-bullying"? Is trolling the same as cyber bullying, or is it a unique form of bullying itself?
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