Trolling for Trolls

To troll is “to make a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them”. At least that is the current description.

Or fish by trailing a baited line along behind a boat.

If you are old enough to remember the first time you put in that AOL disk and fired up your 2400 modem. After a few minutes waiting you could log onto this Internet thing with a password no one else knew.

There wasn’t much to look at back then, but the social media of the time were ‘chat rooms’. Do you remember them? It was a preview of what was to come. Any subject or conversation soon regressed into 14-year olds insulting each other with crude jokes and sexual innuendos.

There was the first attempt as email for one to connect with another one-on-one but the transmission was so slow, it was better just to dial up the phone.

Now the speeds and graphics have gotten fast enough to watch video in live time, but the basis of communication is still back in those chat rooms, and maybe getting worse.

Since the Internet is a free for all environments, it is a wonderful immediate method to get news, advertising, and lots of baby announcements. Families can talk online and companies can have group discussions. Lost friends can be found and even cars and houses can be sold.

On the down side of an open society, the left and the right and the up and the down has the freedom to post whatever opinions and thoughts they have for everyone to view.

The content providers, including newspaper and broadcast media, are trying to filter out some of the most harmful content, but there is this ‘freedom of speech’ thing that muddies the waters. Then it is up to the individual to read and listen to the content they wish and block the rest.

Is that mental censorship? Being aware of the bad also lets you appreciate the good.

Certainly the news media has to cover what is necessary to inform the public but with all the carnage, destruction and fearful news, they throw us a biscuit with a YouTube video of puppies or kangaroos. Who doesn’t like a kangaroo?

Recently I was tagged as a ‘troll’.

Again the definition: To troll is “to make a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them”.

I will say I speak my mind, but personal degradation is not in my DNA. I have posted offensive (to some) or provocative post. It has elucidated some interesting conversations and a few rejections. That is life.

Still disagreeing with a comment or post is reason for debate, but there are little intellectual discussions these days. Not the quoting of Voltaire or the Simpsons, but a true heartfelt belief that expands the knowledge of the other person.

In personal emails I will call out another person on what I feel are transgressions. These can turn ugly. The words transmitted would be the same spoken face-to-face. I will push back and stand toe-to-toe with someone I feel has offended me. I haven’t sued anyone for defamation yet, but it has crossed my mind.

Does this sound harsh?

In today’s hostile society, people either cower down to political correctness or strike out in hateful reactions. Those years of discussing with a friend of what their opinion on a topic because you respect their view or listen to one’s personal thoughts just to be a sounding board with no judgment.

There was another definition. To go to the local watering hole looking for a hookup was trolling.