Internet Trolling

Tolls are all over the Internet and they come in different forms as well. There are insult trolls that like to be a “hater” then there are debate trolls who live for a good argument and can go on for hours, usually always getting the last word in. You might’ve come across the grammar police troll who is always looking to correct you’re grammar… I mean your. The grammar police can be mistaken for the know it all troll and lastly there are off topic trolls and spammers. All these trolls have one thing in common and it’s trying to annoy, offend, or cause trouble in an online community.

Whitney Phillips described Facebook having a PR nightmare with trolls as it tarnished their brand and they took certain measures to try and censor them out. They implemented extensions for users to download and protect their children from potential abusive material. Facebook can only do so much as the trolls would adapt and counter with a different online chat forum to maintain their online influence. Facebook isn’t the only one dealing with trolls, Twitter announced a new strategy in their battle with internet trolls. Phillips also talks about the harder you try to ban trolls, the stronger they come back at you or the brand. This could be troubling for research projects that are on people like mine since if try to censor the troll or even tell them to stop whatever they’re doing, well then, they should listen, right?

Trolls can always interfere with a research project, especially when it involves observing/ communicating with others. For my project on office life and gym life I can have inaccurate observations if the subjects know and they might start doing goofy exercises. Since my project won’t have that many digital aspects, then I won’t need to be too worried about trolls.