I was reading something akin to a myTake online a few weeks back about a teenager who had suffered through some horrendous bullying at school that had gotten more vicious and violent over the years, and how it had led to a major depression and a suicide attempt. Thankfully however, she was saying how she had come out of it on the other end with the help of her friends, family, and support group with a positive outlook on life. As I scrolled down to give her a comment of encouragement as so many others were doing, there it was: "you should have f-ing killed yourself and saved us all the trouble of reading this." Even though the comment was not directed at me, it really made me angry to think, given the story the young girl was telling about what she had to endure, here is a person with no morality whatsoever, just trying to irritate, shame, pick fights, and destroy this girl or anyone who would listen, and for what? So they can get off on their sickness?
Trolls are those individuals who start arguments by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community meant to provoke usually an angry or negative response. There is basically nothing social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, or GAG can do to prevent people from trolling. You can set privacy settings, you can block people, you can try to go to positive sites and areas promiting family friendly environments, but trolls are unscrupulous individuals who hide behind the anonymity of the internet, and like roaches, you see one, there are hundreds more waiting in the wings right behind them. Trolling happens so frequently here and other places, that one almost has trouble distinguising sometimes between someone who generally disagrees or dislikes what you're saying, which is fine, and someone just out there trying to start fights with anyone who will take the bait.
Keep in mind that trolls don't always start off with negativity which is why it can sometimes be hard to spot them. They may start with a question or even a nice comment, and then respond with their stupidity and negativity. Responding to trolls will only ever lead you or others commenting to go round and round in useles arguments and hostilities. People continue to think that confronting trolls is actually doing something, but it doesn't. They like it, they feed off of your hostility, which is why the phrase, "don't feed the trolls" came into being. Try your best to ignore them, have a private page where you know everyone in your circle of commenters, ignore people who make comments that are so off topic or it's clear that they didn't read your take or story, block or ban those who continue to harrass you, simply comment with "I don't feed the trolls," and of course the most obvious, which is respond to those you can see have interest in your story, questions, ideas and whom you can get a sense after a few appearances in comments, are genuine people who want to debate, discuss, disagree, or like what you're saying. Give those type of people your full attention, and not the trolls. It's not easy and we all can get caught up with trolls from time to time, but continue to work on it and build upon a community who can recognize and put the trolls back under the bridge where they belong.
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