Hello I m Darren Magee and todays questions have asked if I would discussed Internet trolls,
the cyber bully. There is a lot of the cover in escort decided to break this video into two parts.
In this video I'm going to talk about what trolling is and look at the different kinds
of internet troll. I m also look at some of the motivations behind that kind of behaviour.
In the next video I'm going to discuss some of the research that has went into the personality
types that engage in cyber bullying. So if you find this video interesting, please consider
subscribing to my channel. But just to remind you, this video is for information purposes only.
Now the term troll comes from a mythical anti social kind of creature. They tend to be very
grumpy and very quarrelsome, and particularly hard to get along with. In the kids story, The Three
Billy Goats Gruff the troll in that story lived under a bridge, if you will, hid in the shadows.
I think the same could be said for Internet trolls. They hide anonymously behind their phones,
their laptops or whatever. Some even create fake accounts just to spread misery online. So what is
Internet tolling? Well first of all, let's look at what it isn't. Someone who posts something
maybe controversial or has a disagreement with someone isn't necessarily an internet troll.
The Oxford Dictionary describes an online troll as someone who is making a deliberately offensive or
provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone. So from that definition I would suggest
that with trolling there is an intent, but I don't necessarily think that definition covers
all kinds of trolling. So let's look at some of the different kinds of online troll,
ranging from the nuisance to the outright sadistic. First of all, there is the pay
attention to me kind of troll. Now this person may have no real interest in what the post
is or what the discussion is about that maybe don't really want to learn anything new. They
are perhaps just lonely, they just want a bit of attention. They will comment on pretty much
anything hoping that someone is going to engage with them. Or you could have the pay attention
to me kind of troll who just wants everybody to read what they have to say, to go to their page,
their website, to watch their videos, to read their blog, to maybe buy or download
stuff from them. And I would say that this kind of troll would be more like spamming.
Then there's what's known as the griefer . Now this is the troll who likes to irritate others
just for the sake of a joke. They may come across as a playful rule breaking kind of scamp, but
as much as that banter can be harmless, there can also be a sinister side to it.
They seem to enjoy embarrassing, sabotaging, or even humiliating others just for a giggle.
Then there would be what's known as well, what I would call the pedantic , sometimes referred
to as maybe the grammar police . Now this is the troll who would maybe see the misspelling of a
word or an apostrophe in the wrong place, or maybe something has been mispronounced
and my goodness they just pounce. This kind looks for human error and weakness and
finds ways to exploit it for their own gratification. When others maybe challenge them on
pointing out the error, it's still a win for them because the topic of conversation has now shifted,
they're being engaged with, not the person who made the original post themselves.
It can also be a tactic to devalue and criticise the person who made the error. Maybe they just
made one small human error, but according to this troll they are clearly stupid you shouldn't listen
to anything they have to say. Which can be very similar to the intellectual troll . Now this is
the troll who likes to share their opinions whether they have any knowledge on the topic
or not. They behave as if their thoughtful musings are more important than facts or experience. They
disagree with things by virtue signalling and making statements like, a lot of people think
but they never actually mention who these people are or how they know them.
Now a common trait of the intellectual troll is if they ask a question or raise a concern
or make a statement, if you answer them they have no interest in anything you have to say.
They just want you to debate with them. They just want you to explain yourself
and your explanation will never be good enough because they are far too clever. They're a bit
like an energy vampire. They tend to feed off your frustration as you try to get your point across.
They continually misdirect the topic, the topic of the conversation. They use endless paragraphs
of word salad and it doesn't matter what you say, they have no intention of understanding.
The next kind of troll would be the one who deliberately spreads misinformation. Now
the agenda behind this kind of troll is to create false perceptions around a person or a situation.
I would speculate that many of these kinds of trolls would maybe be part of a movement or an
organisation. Or maybe they're trying to create bias, false narratives in order to maybe harass
and deceive other people, and particularly their opponents. Next up is what I would describe as a
predator , and these are opportunists. They maybe seeing people who are undecided about something
and dazzle them with her intellect and their wit. Or they may see someone who is vulnerable,
so they come across as pleasant. They flatter them, engage with their target in the hope of
any kind of a conversation. They may be quite harmless at first, you know, I agree with you.
You've made a good point. I hope you're in a better place now But remember what I said,
these are predators. If you do engage with them it's not long before it escalates to things like,
So where are you from? and, I would like to talk to you further. Can I have your e-mail address or
your phone number? When someone does engage with them but won't necessarily give them personal
information, personal contact information, they can become quite aggressive. By the way,
if you're targeted by this kind of troll, rest assured that they've probably sent that same
friendly flattering message that dozens of people in the hope that someone will answer.
Next is the perpetually offended troll. Everything outrages them. They are either offended personally
or their offended on behalf of others. Doesn't matter what is said doesn't matter whether it was
in good humour or even if it's a scientific fact, even if it's something innocuous,
it will be twisted into something hurtful and offensive. This seems to be a mindset
where opinions, beliefs, feelings are much more important than other peoples, or even
facts. There's no room for nuance, there's no room for context or even difference. But in some cases,
once they have decided to find something offensive, there are those who would indulge in
what I've heard referred to as offence archaeology . In other words, they will search through
years of someone's posts, Tweets, pictures, videos actively looking for more evidence
to support their claim. Quite typically, these would be the type who ask gotcha questions.
Now these are the kind of questions that you just cannot answer properly, regardless of your answer,
they will have something to attack you for. This kind of trolling tends to generate what's
known as pile-ons, and you would particularly see this on Twitter. Others tend to suddenly become
very offended as well, and add to the insulting, the threatening, the humiliation of the target.
And these pile-ons are what researchers refer to as the broken window theory . Now
that theory is that if someone were to lift the stone and throw it at a window and smash it,
others start to become very excited. They lift stones, and start throwing at the window as well,
even though it's already smashed, that doesn't matter they're getting a kick out of it as well.
Which can be a bit of a nightmare if you happen to be that window. Lastly, there is the insulter or,
the hater . Now they post hateful, hurtful comments, sometimes just for the sake of it.
They don't have to know the person. They don't have to know anything about them
they just do it. They will threaten in many different ways. They may even
threaten to expose personal details about their targets, such as where they live,
and it can be terrifying to be on the wrong end of this kind of troll. Because the victim's can't
always be sure whether or not to take the threat seriously, especially if that troll is anonymous.
So there are just some kinds of troll. So the question as to why do they do it? Well, first
of all, I have already mentioned there is safety behind anonymity so they can feel safe to bully,
insult and harass, even threaten people believing there will be no fear of punishment.
And when it comes to the pile-ons that I mentioned earlier, sometimes there's a belief that there
is safety in numbers. There is also safety from trolling someone from a fake account.
But the reasons for trolling can vary from person to person. Some people do it out of boredom. Some
people do it out of malice. Some people just want to get some kind of response from, say,
a celebrity of some kind. Some are just desperate for attention, and bad attention is better than
none at all. There can be envy, envy perhaps over someone else's success, or even just happiness.
Someone may see something online that they disagree with and really believe that it's
been posted about them personally. In some may just want to reel others into their own little
world of misery. But something to consider when it comes to the online troll, many times all they
re doing is reading words. They may have a profile picture of that person, or an avatar of some kind.
Other than that, they know nothing about the person. If it's a like a YouTube video, yeah
they see and hear the person speak, but they know nothing about them. They've never actually met. So
I think a lot of the time what's happening is they are reacting to a version of that person that they
have created for themselves in their own head. And sometimes some people just want to create
mayhem for the sake of mayhem. So they are just some of the common types of the Internet troll,
the cyber bully. In the second part of this video I'm going to look at some of the research that s
went into the personality type of the internet troll. Now as always there may be something,
some types I may have missed, by all means please use the comment box below, these videos to do
tend to start some interesting conversations. If you like this video, please consider subscribing
to my channel for future updates on mental health related topics and until next time,
thanks for watching. Here's one on what happens when, what happens with narcissists feel they
re losing control over you and the comment is, They make videos about narcissism on YouTube.
Oh, you meant me, you scallywag I can tell from your grey hair that death is stalking you