If you are on social media, be it Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even Whatsapp groups, you must have come across the term trolling.
For those of you who are not familiar with the term trolling, or trolls, here is the definition as quoted from Wikipedia.
In Internet slang, a troll is a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord
by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses
and normalizing tangential discussion, whether for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain.
Trolling is the act of being a troll, as defined above. While most of the time trolling happens to celebrities and public figures, it is also very real in the lives of those of us who often hide in the shadows of social media.
The probability of being trolled increases when you are in non-good terms with an active social media user. Way back a few months ago, I had a dramatic falling out with one of the most active social media users in my contacts, and for two weeks, I never had peace being online. I had to save myself by confronting her directly, which led to her blocking me, thus bringing the fight to an end.
Luckily for me, I was dealing with a single( meaning one) person, who only trolled me through WhatsApp groups and her statuses which made the defense easier. However, being trolled on large platforms such as Twitter and Facebook may be one of the worst things that can happen to a person in this age of the internet. Confronting the trolls makes it even worse because in so doing, you provide an audience for the trolls, who will now troll you even harder.
Being silent is always the best option, but may not work if you often and regularly log into your social media several times a day. This is because the more it happens, the more you get pissed and soon, all the anger and pain you are holding in will burst shamefully to the public.
I therefore compiled a list of things you can do whenever you find yourself being trolled, to make the trolling end sooner, because you can’t really stop it:
- Avoid being a point of interest. Trolls don’t go for silent or unknown people most of the time. The trolls are attention seekers, and often target the people from whom they’re going to get the most of it.
- Once you’re being trolled, stay offline for some hours or even a day. While you might be tempted to go back online and see what’s being said, the wise choice here is to stay offline, to deny the trolls an audience. Once they realize they can’t get to you, they will soon stop.
- Engage in positive talk and forums. If you interact with the right combination of the people, groups or forums online, you probably are never going to be trolled. Most trolls are found in the most meaningless of forums and can therefore be easily avoided.
- Don’t respond to every insult or comment that comes your way. Most trolls often start with an insult, to spark a reaction from you, which in one way or the other starts a fight. Remember, you don’t have to throw stones at every dog that barks.
- Keep your personal life private, or atleast hide the most vulnerable details. Trolls need a weakpoint to attack you successfully. Most if not all times, trolls get into personal issues such as your financial status or love life and use them as a machine gun from which to fire their ammunition. Don’t give them the machine gun.
Finally but most importantly however, always remember, there is victory in losing. Some fights are not worth the effort used in their battles. As someone once said, “The only battles worth winning are those from within us.”
Smart Sanity 