[Maru]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

I find this topic difficult to debate because media attention / misunderstanding has, in my opinion, altered the meaning of the word for those of us who have been online "from the beginning".

The confusion is when genuinely malicious, deliberately harmful comments, designed to cause real injury, are flippantly described as "trolling" (facebook / twitter "trolls" etc.) and that's the meaning the word has now taken on. What it really is, or was, is more like a gentle ribbing / employment of satire that can actually have a point if used sparingly and with awareness.

So basically... it depends which variety you're talking about .

Are you the one who trolled the troll poll?



What is the primary definition of trolling for you?

I was around when the name was new/new-ish, but it used to be used as an insult to try to finger wag/shame people being assholes ... then it kinda became a thing that people did for fun. Then it kinda tee-d off from that in my experience into applying to various use cases for the word...

For me trolling is mostly when you are deceiving others for some cause.. it can be as light as baiting someone into making certain commentary (stealth trolling)... but it doesn't have to involve any bullying. It doesn't even have to involve humiliation. It does often involve the deception component... particular with the purpose of forcing others to show their hand.

Imo, Western societies, particularly America, where individualism is King are really bad at being trolled. Our mainstream media is very easily trolled as well. Donald Trump would not have been elected had it not been for the gullibility of people to respond and make viral his controversial remarks... if you read his history, particularly his Twitter feed, truthfully, he's been running a campaign for more than 2 years... so shouldn't have been a surprise to our media what his ultimate goal was. Had they not fed the troll, we may have had had a different result... but I think that is is true in most cases where social media and politics is involved... people are very prone to baiting remarks and thinly veiled commentary... therefore our society as a whole tries to "correct" the problematic individual by condemning or otherwise trying to "purge" these influences... but thanks to the internet and individualism, it can never be purged... instead it is further re-circulated by the "troll armies" (remember that term?) by way of click bait-y headlines and shock jock-esk speeches at rallies... our media, none the wiser fed into this trap hook line and sinker... therefore unintentionally and successfully vetted him as an "anti-establishment" candidate.