Most of this is from Time magazine’s August 29th story entitled: TYRANNY OF THE MOB.” It starts: “Trolls are turning the web into a cesspool of aggression and violence.”
Explaining “the Internet’s personality has changed. Once it was a geek with lofty ideals about the free flow of information. Now…it is a sociopath with Asperger’s. “
If you needed help increasing your upload speeds it was readily available. Unfortunately now, if you mention you are depressed on the web you will likely receive instructions on how to kill yourself.
Factors like anonymity, invisibility, lack of authority and not communicating in real time “strip away mores society spent millennia building.”
Let me define a couple of new terms for you.
To “Troll” is known to most as a fishing style. But online “It quickly morphed to refer to the monsters who hide in darkness and threaten people.”
Internet trolls claim the do this for “lulz” or translated laughs. These include everything from clever pranks to harassment to violent threats.
They claim if you don’t laugh you lack a sense of humor.
Also there is “doxxing.” That’s publishing social security numbers and bank account information.
Every heard of “swatting?” It is self explanatory – it’s calling in an emergency to someone’s home in hopes of having a swat team bust in!
Some of the other tricks “trolls” have played include: posting on memorial pages mocking the death of someone they may not even know.
In 2012 Anita Sarkeesian tried to raise funds for a series about the hatred of women. She received bomb threats, doxxing threats, rape threats and an unwanted starring role in a video game.
A New York Times writer with 35,000 Twitter followers quit social media after a barrage of anti-Semitic messages.
And a female writer recently stopped using social media after receiving rape threats against her 5 year old daughter.
Folks these are just the tip of the iceberg. The Time story written by Joel Stein is amazing.
Our kids from 6,7,8 years of age have phones and access to the Internet. Parents need to take heed and make sure their children aren’t off on the wrong foot. If you hear them say “trolling” and they aren’t going to the lake it’s time to get involved.
Asking if they have “Prince Albert in a can” was a prank – sending in the swat team isn’t!
