Trolling and social media conflict
The concept commonly referred to as "digital citizenship" aims to kerb problematic or unusual forms of participation in the online environment. (Hartley, 2012, p.136). Digital citizenship is often related to ethical conduct in an online territory. It revolves around the dissonance between the "formal" and "substantive" elements that make up citizenship, between its "relational status" (mutual obligations) and its "personal identity"(personal characteristics)', as well as how this relates to the"formal" and "substantive" elements that make citizenship. McCosker (2014) points out that this is particularly relevant in terms of the actions, obligations, and behaviours of the"online public".
"Troll" is internet slang for someone who deliberately tries to stir up conflict, hate, or arguments in an online social community. The comments sections of social media platforms such as YouTube and chatrooms are common targets for trolls.
Trolls use inflammatory messages to manipulate emotions and disrupt civil discourse. Trolls engage in this activity in public spaces where people are free to express themselves. Identity deception is part of the game, but it usually happens without the player's consent. To appear legitimate, the trolls pretend to share the group's interests and concerns. Newsgroup members, if they are aware of sprays and other deceptions surrounding identity, will recognise spray posts and remove them from the group (Wilson, Fuller & McCrea, 2013). Their success depends on how well they know identity cues. Wilson, Fuller, and McCrea (2013) argue whether the group successfully does the latter if the group's costs outweigh the troll's enjoyment.
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Most people are motivated by positive social rewards during everyday interactions, which means that after engaging in friendly or helpful behaviour, they experience positive emotions. On the other hand, trolls are motivated differently. Typically, they are highly negative social interactions. It is a fancy way of saying that they enjoy causing mischief, distress, and attention that goes along with it. Trolling results from intrinsic and situational factors, i.e., mood and discussion context can lead to exploring (Cheng, 2017,p16). As well as internal characteristics, for example, interpreting snarky remarks as the result of general meanness (i.e. their disposition) rather than a bad day (i.e. a circumstance that would lead to such behaviour) (Cheng, 2017).
How to deal with Internet trolls
I will now share a video with you for this section.
It is usually best to ignore the troll. Don't get involved in an argument. This is precisely the thing trolls thrive on because they love the attention.
Ina moderated forum, administrators should be able to detect trolling early and ban offending users or delete offending comments.
Trolls who make themselves known should be able to be reported if they engage in abusive or offensive behaviour. The procedure for reporting trolling will vary according to the site or forum you are on.
Reference list
Cheng, J, Bernstein, M, Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, C & Leskovec, J 2017, pp16-pp18, Anyone Can Become a Troll: Causes of Trolling Behavior in Online Discussions.
Donath, Judith. ‘Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community’ In Peter Kollock & Marc Smith (eds.)Community and Identity in Cyberspace (London, New York: Routledge, 1999).
Hartley, J 2012,pp136， Digital futures for cultural and media studies, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.
Jason Wilson, Glen Fuller & Christian McCrea 2013, ‘Issue 22: Trolls and the Negative Space of the Internet Editorial’, Fibreculture Journal, no. 22, Open Humanities Press, pp. 1–14.
McCosker, A. (2014) ‘Trolling as a provocation: YouTube’s agonistic publics’, Convergence, 20(2), pp. 201–217. DOI: 10.1177/1354856513501413.
Great blog Siyi! Trolls are so damaging they do not even realise. Your comment "identity deception is part of the game" is spot on, they love to use fake names and make people feel awful because it gives them some sick satisfaction. They also think because its not their name there won't be any repercussions.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to link an article that delves deeper into that discussion if you want to check it out. It is quite an interesting read.
https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-trolls-dont-just-enjoy-hurting-others-they-also-feel-good-about-themselves-145931
Hi Belle, Liked your images as it made the post more interesting and the video you embedded was very informative. Monique
ReplyDelete