In Nordic folklore trolls are described as beings who live in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, caves, or under bridges, who are rarely helpful to we humans.
In our modern world, a troll is described as someone who harasses, criticizes, or antagonizes people by making disparaging or mocking statements on social media platforms. Provocateurs exist on all social media platforms, and in other places as well, but one of the platforms that is sometimes seen as the haven for trolls is Twitter, which not long ago was purchased by eccentric billionaire Elon Musk.
With its millions of users, including some of the world’s most powerful and influential people, Twitter has become something of a lifeline for people who want to be connected with that world. At the same time, the disruption caused by those who seem to get their enjoyment by making others miserable can make it seem like a dog-eat-dog jungle where only the most vicious and uncaring survive.
There are a number of types of Twitter Trolls.
- The ‘calling you out’ troll is the person who responds to any self-promotional tweet with a snide, cutting remark. Of all the trolls, this one is mildly annoying but mostly harmless.
- The ‘freeloader’ is the troll who follows people in order to get access to ‘free’ stuff. Kind of like the guy who horns into your group at a bar to get free drinks.
- The ‘link jumper’ retweets other people’s links without even checking to see if their valid. You might think someone like this is harmless, but they are often part of the crowd that passes along misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies and conspiracy theories.
- The ‘public shamer’. This is the turkey who sends you an email, follows that up with a message on Facebook, and then messages you on Twitter asking if you ‘got the email’. Usually, these are people you don’t really want to communicate with.
- The ‘attack dog.’ This is the one I most dislike. This is the troll who uses snide, cutting, or insulting remarks to disagree with something you’re tweeted, resorting often to profanity or name calling. Not just annoying but infuriating. These are the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic misfits who seem to hate everyone who is different from them and who either have no filters on their remarks or feel emboldened by the relative anonymity of the Internet. Attack dog trolls are the playground bullies of the Internet.
The various platforms do a sketchy job of controlling the damage trolls can do, especially when they happen to be famous or powerful people. Twitter seemed for a time to be making a good faith effort to create a safe environment, going so far as to ban some really big shots who hadn’t just gone over the line, but had erased the line.
Recently this seems to have changed. A lot of the previous attack dog trolls have been invited back and I’ve been noticing of late a decided downturn in the civility of some tweets.
I fear that the situation can only get worse and I’m frankly at a loss as to what to do. I could, I suppose, do what many of done and just delete my account, but with thousands of followers with whom I’ve developed quite a rapport over the years, it hardly seems fair to them. In addition, the idea of leaving the field to the troglodytes bothers me. It’s like turning the zoo over to the animals.
I guess I’ll just continue to hang in there and when they go low, I’ll either go high or go silent. What I will not do is run away. – NWI
