|
>>
|
No. 127
The Internet has become ubiquitous and people that are using it, are not
thinking about it anymore. It’s just there. Since it has been designed for
openness, this arises problems, when people don’t ponder on their role on the
Internet and use the openness in an unreflected way, say to display oneself.
This lures the trolls, who often posess a larger amount of media cempetence
and find the weak points in the constructs of the unaware.
On the one hand, it serves us with good lulz and often educates newbies.
On the other hand, some forms of trolling create a hostile environment, which
will influence the culture of the internet in a bad way.
This leads us to the first conclusion:
You can and must understand troll culture now!
By understanding the phenomenon and its functioning, we can evaluate the
up- and downsides individially for each action. Creative, classy trolling is
a beautiful thing when executed well and I find it sad, that the tenor about
trolling is so negative, as of this writing. This is a waste of potential.
Annother problem is, that trolls traditionally think in two categories.
Internet and Real-Life. With the ubiquity of the Internet, this too changed finally.
While people always had some forms of emotional connections to their avatars
or websites, current changes interweave so called Real Life and Internet even
more. While pseudonymity was a norm in the 90s, it disappeared with the rise
of Facebook and Google. This brought an influx of people, that didn’t care
about the computer or the network on its technical layer, but wanted to
socialise with friends online, under their real names, like in “Real Life”.
Given this, even the greatest critic of the concept has to admit, that the
Internet finally IS Real Life, just as much as your Job, your Family, etc...
Our online life has strong impacts on our offline live and vice versa.
The problem with some of the most cruel trollings is, that some trolls have not realized this change.
This leads us to the second conclusion:
Trolls must understand, that Internet is Real Life!
Because trolling is a constant on the Internet, this conclusion would never
stop the malicious, live destroying kind of trolling, as seen in the case of
Jessi Slaughter. Maybe, there will be a new profession of troll blazers,
those who find delight in the task of helping people that are hunted by the
enormous mass of the trolls. Specialists in Internet Culture at marketing
agencies often already know how to deal with trolls. However, the skill of
professional advice should not be limited to few marketing experts that help
big businesses.
Teachers should be educating how to avoid trolling in school. That doesn’t
mean, that children should learn to stop doing anything online in order to
avoid trolls. It should be differenciated. After all, trolls usually go for
the naive and the vain. Trolls like to mock those, that promise to give the
most lulz.
“‘Lulz’ is the pleasure derived from provoking and/or observing unjustifiable
internet rage”, so if you are mad, take some time to think if your actions
are still adequate. This all leads us to the third conclusion:
The Internet is not a place to live out your excessive vanity or unwarranted self-importance!
Problem?
|
