Trolls in our midst

You see them everywhere online these days. They are particularly active in news and public affairs websites, popular blogs, chat sites, Twitter, Facebook, and even general sites like Yahoo. They are those who seem to have an opinion about anything. They are those who like to post negative comments even loaded ones that tend to agitate or rile other online denizens. The wayward comments are intended to bait the author and other people to reply, setting off what was termed as a "flame war" in the past (I'm not sure it's termed the same way today.).

I first noticed trolls on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in the 1990's. They like coming into chat channels and immediately post wayward, inappropriate, or offending remarks in the channel. Many deliberately attempt to disrupt discussions to the point that chatters eventually create other channels or end up having private chats in ad hoc channels. All of them hide under the "nicks," short for nicknames that chatters use in order hide their true identities. There are many reasons for people hiding their true identities online. Among these reasons are to be able to attack others online while remaining anonymous. Such behavior, many say, is the hallmark of cowardice as many of these people don't really have the courage to speak up in person or face-to-face to the people they are wont to harass online. Of course, the counter claim is that their anonymity protects them from backlash (whether online or in real life). But why be afraid of the repercussions of your remarks if they were true and not maliciously delivered? 

I've noticed the past few years the increasing amount of trolling online. These are mostly on unmoderated sites where article authors and legit comments are often"attacked" by people who exude what we now call "nega" (short for negative energy). But now, you also have a lot of trolls on social media, using the typical tactic of hiding their true identities behind their handles. Noticeable, too, are what seem to be professional trolls - those who are paid to comment negatively on news articles, opinion pages, and public figures or sites or pages devoted to the same. Among the most frequent targets, naturally and logically, are politicians. And then of course, there are already sites wholly devoted to criticism where most if not all contributors pass off themselves as experts who practically know it all and best.

Fortunately for us, there are also filters and ways to moderate discussions or comments on posts. Such tools save us from much of the trolling or prevent the "nega" comments from being out there in public. Of course, there are some of us who choose to engage these trolls once in a while in order to expose many of them as frauds and cowards. I must admit that I myself have tried to use their own methods against them (a taste of their own medicine). So far, I've managed to piss off some of them as they end up ranting or contradicting themselves. So to those who might have experienced or who will experience trolling first hand, there are basically two ways to handle these creatures: limited engagement or the silent treatment. The first is quite tricky and one must be careful not to get lured by the more experienced trolls. The second, I guess, is the most effective and what many decent people employ most of the time.

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