So, we learn about internet troll today, and I was thinking about what cause someone to troll. The biggest theory seems to be that trolls are seeking attention, and that they do it because they cannot be held responsible for their action. Now, the first one, I definitely agree with it, but the second one is kind of shaky. While ananomity contribute to increase in amount of trolling on the internet, we can definitely see that people do not need to hide behind anamity to be a jerk to others.
Being behind the screen and not in front of the audiences' face kind of put some kind of emotional barrier and allow people to express their thought freely. Take this blog for example. Even when we know that it's the same audiences and the same content you are talking about, how many people here would be as comfortable reading their post in the middle of the class as they do when they type here.
Or we can use something else that are much more common, such as Facebook or Instragam. People are so comfortable with sharing their personal expirience, story, and opinion, while in real life they would not be saying those stuff to other people's face.
In fact, I think semi-anonimity system encourage trolling even more than full ananomous system would. Places such as Reddit or Tumblr, where people do not really know you in real life, but you would still be held accountable to stuff you post, are usually where the most of the troll resided. People are still making an account dedicated to making low effort or particularly provocative comments. These account are usually used to pushed the user's agenda and consistently troll about the same thing over and over.
Website with full anonimity tend to have less trolling, or at least, less attention to it. The only place that I use and offer full anonimity is 4chan.org/a/, and while there are trolls in that place, rarely anyone pay attention to it. The whole "don't feed the troll" strategy are really effective when the trolls are being ignored in mass number.
I agree with what you said about trolls being trolls because they want attention but I don't think that websites with full anonimity tend to have less trolling. I completely agree that some social media and websites have people who troll even with semi-anonimity. But I do think that people tend to be trolls because they have that characteristic of being unknown and losing that emotional connection. When you post something online without anyone knowing it is them it makes you less attached to what you said to the person. So they have no guilt while they are posting about it. So I sort of believe that anonyimity has something to do with the amount of trolls that appear on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Avram. Anonymity has to do with trolling. There are trolls who post without being anonymous, but there are also trolls who only post when they're protected behind the screen. It helps to say anything without being worried of what pain they caused the person. They won't feel as responsible for hurting someone else's opinion. They could be more careless and reckless behind a screen while having less responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Avram when he says that anonymity is desired for trolls because they cannot be forced to own up to anything they have said online. I like the example you used about this blog. While I can confidently post my ideas and opinions on here, I do not think it would be as easy for me to read it aloud in class. I think this has to do with not being able to see my audience's reactions when I post online like I would if I did this in person. I believe this is why trolls are able to say such hurtful things because they do not have to see the effect they had on someone.
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