How to deal with trolls

For the past five years as a blogger and reviewer, I’ve received rude and nasty comments on social media. During that time I’ve had to endure unnecessary name-calling, negative remarks from anonymous angry people and messages from arrogant and condescending trolls. Yet, as the years have gone by, I’ve developed a thicker skin for these unexpected attacks.

The first time it happened to me was three years ago, and it was completely unexpected. I received some troubling tweets from a particular user. They guessed my age, my profession, my personality type, and felt entitled enough to tell me that I was reviewing opera performances the wrong way. Had it been constructive criticism I would have listened, but their comments were out of the blue and seemed patronising. There wasn’t anything particularly topical or untoward in my Twitter feed that evening, either, only that I was enjoying an opera performance at the Royal Opera House (with ‘Jonas Kaufmann’ singing the lead role). So, their troll-like behaviour was quite unusual given the timing.

The experience was unpleasant. I instantly replied back to the person, verified my age, blocked them immediately and that was that. Yet the main reason why I remember the situation so clearly is not so much about the words they used to offend or engage with me but, in fact, the profound effect it had on the Twitter community.