Internet Trolls: What Are They and How Do You Deal with Them?

First, Internet trolls are everywhere. You’ve probably run into one at some point or another and if you spend any time on social media, you’ve probably run into trolls on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

 

What is a troll?

Definition: An Internet troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

In a nutshell, trolls can be a nightmare to deal with. Especially when it comes to areas of faith. There is nothing a troll loves more than to jump into a faith conversation and to pull in the atheist point of view or to compare people of faith to atrocious events, people, or things.

How do you deal with a troll?

The first thing to understand is that a troll cannot be reasoned with. They are not looking for an intelligent or adult conversation. They do not want to hear your side of the story. A troll is commenting because they want to cause trouble. They want to upset you, to give you a headache, and to make the situation worse. So what do you do?

Do not engage trolls in conversation. If you see a troll, don’t respond. Don’t answer their heinous comment. Don’t give them any of your attention. Similar to a child throwing a temper-tantrum, if you feed their tantrum, you only make it worse.
Don’t be a troll back. If a troll makes an outrageous comment, making a different outrageous comment won’t help the situation. A troll looks for any fuel to throw on the fire.
Hide the troll comment when possible. If a troll comments on your Facebook page or YouTube video, hide it. Don’t let that comment stay there. Even if you decide to ignore the troll someone else might not, and once the ball gets rolling, it can be difficult to stop.
Don’t let a troll get to you. Trolls can be nasty. They can be hateful and can say horrible things that have the ability to knock you down. The best thing you can do is to pretend that the troll does not exist. What they are saying is not truth. Remember the definition, they want to hurt you and sow discord.
Don’t let them win. Internet trolls are everywhere. It seems that more and more crop up each day. But we don’t have to let the trolls win. By continuing to have meaningful conversations and discussions online, in spite of trolls, we are showing them that the Internet is still a wonderful place and that they do not hold the power.

 

This post was written by Kelly Vo. Kelly is the Strategy Director with Media Connect Partners.