Jeremy Cannon- Internet Trolls and Us

          As with all tools, services and commodities, the Internet is no different when it comes to falling to the darker part of human nature. I was no at all surprised about some of the things we talked about in class regarding the issue. I’m sure everyone has had his or her own experiences with many of the flavors that the dark side of the Internet presents itself in. In a way, it is only natural that people will find a way to deceive, corrupt and manipulate each other by using the Internet, just as they did, and still do, face to face. The internet is just another tool that makes it much more easier to accomplish those twisted goal.

            One of the most common instances of the dark side of the internet I have experienced, by far, is trolling. Urban dictionary defines trolling as “Being a prick on the internet because you can. Typically unleashing one or more cynical or sarcastic remarks on an innocent by-stander, because it’s the internet and, hey, you can.” I feel as though that definition hits the nail on head when it comes to Trolls and trolling. Trolls are pricks, only looking to disrupt online communities. In a nutshell, they are annoying.

            The place where I find most of these internet trolls is while either playing online games While gaming, I run into people who will not play fair, kill teammates, yell out racial slurs and just be generally obnoxious. There are ways to deal with people like that, usually through reporting them to administrators or just collectively booting them from the game session, but that doesn't seem to discourage them any.

            But how bad is trolling? An article Emma Cueto sheds a bit of light on this question. It states that Men are much more likely than women to engage in trolling; 30 percent of men have “argued maliciously” with a stranger about an opinion online, while among women the rate is only about 18 percent. Only a slightly smaller percentage (of both men and women) has argued with a stranger about a fact. Teens and young adults were also more likely than older Americans to have been trolls, which also makes a lot of sense. Other findings include: A total of 77 percent of Americans think that anonymity contributes to trolling and 4 percent don’t think that trolls can be fought at all. About half of Americans believe a commenter has crossed the line if they are deliberately trying to upset one or more people (Cueto, 2014).

            Trolling definitely isn’t the worst of the issues conjured up by the dark side of the internet, but it is probably the most common. It’s an issue that effect almost every frequent internet user. I’m not sure if there is anything that can be done about this though. It’s very difficult to make policies against a person’s free speech and in a way, which is what Trolling is. Trolls just use their free speech in offensive and disruptive ways to gain lulz. There will always people who want to create chaos or even just get attention. Unfortunately, there will always be trolls.