#chrissyteigan

What is trolling?

According to Cambridge Dictionary (2020), trolling is “the act of leaving an insulting message on the internet in order to annoy someone” and it can include the following:

“Being called offensive names, being embarrassed online, being physically threatened online, being sexually harassed online, being harassed over a long time, being hurt online by a romantic partner, being impersonated, spreading damaging rumors online, encouraging others to harass you online, and attempting to hurt the victim in person after online harassment” (Lenhart, et al in Marwick & Robyn Caplan 2018).

 Why do people troll?

Below is a great video presented by ASAPScience that explains the science behind trolls but in short, trolls are people who find pleasure in inflicting pain on others. They thrive off it and there is not only that but to gain as much attention as possible doing it. 

 What you can do

As stated above, trolls just want to be noticed and know that their comments are in fact hurting you. The best thing you can do is ignore them and do not give them the satisfaction of knowing that their comments affected you and eventually, they’ll give up cause their efforts are not working. 

Another example to look at is Chrissy Teigan. Just looking at her Twitter you can see the ridiculous amount of troll comments she gets on everything she posts and consistently sends responses back to many of the comments she receives which usually lead to trolls deleting their comments. It is inspiring to see a woman stand up for herself in such a public environment and not be afraid of the consequences that might come which is why she is the perfect example to show young girls who are just entering the treacherous landscape that is social media.

Overall, trolling is a serious issue that is affecting our society every day. I think that every person can think of an example of where they’ve seen it take place, whether it's happened to them, family, friends or celebrities.