How To Beat The Trolls

Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

Scandinavian Trolls

Trolls are characters from the Scandinavian folklore. Kids grew up with magical tales filled with trolls. The etymology of the noun came from the Old Norse — Northern Germanic— and has meaning related to giants and demons. In many stories, the trolls are described as antisocial characters which make life difficult for travelers. The internet trolls are nothing less than a modern version.

Internet Trolls

Trolling someone on social media is a form of cyberbullying. Some would call that online harassment as well and it comes with devastating mental health consequences. The general concept is also defined as antagonizing someone online through offensive comments or content.

What are the reasons behind trolling?

Four reasons seem to be retained when it comes to online harassment. Trolls want revenge, seek attention, are bored, or for personal fast amusement. They usually target people that are happy and have their life together because trolls can’t have it. Interestingly, the type of target defines the type of troll.

One type of troll sees big. It targets public figure, hoping they reply. If they do, their messages will be broadcasted to a wider audience. It will, therefore, put the troll offensive under the spotlights — mission accomplished, you got their attention.

The second type of troll — only two types have been defined so far by the experts — targets people like you and I. Their hope is to hurt us. They enjoyed seeing people getting hurt. The psychologists would describe this type of individual as “negative social potency”. They are always provoking negative encounters with people.

Could it be the first type or the second type of trolls, experts agree that they definitely exhibit personality traits of psychopathology and sadism.

How to Defeat a Troll

The first rule of thumb is to never, ever give the trolls what they want. Ignorance is psychologically worst than replying with anger. Even if you feel like playing back with a troll using logic or a well elaborate counter-attack, pace yourself and just don’t.

Don’t “feed” the trolls! Ignore them.

The second rule is to report or flag the comment. Most social media platform offers the possibility to flag a comment and the related profile. The algorithm will hide it like it never ever happened. Life goes on, leaving the troll behind.

It sounds simple when you read it, but the difficult part is to not let the perpetrators of trolling get to you. It is a psychological game that vulnerable people have a hard time winning. This is especially true for teenagers. Period of time during which we try to find who we are. A bouillon of hormones already exacerbating anger will have a difficult time dealing with any type of harassment.

Indeed, we shouldn't be stopped from putting ourselves out there. But when we feel like it is too much to handle, let’s take a technology break, go outside and see that the world is still spinning around. Then when ready, go back and enjoy the greatest that the internet has to offer.