It has recently come to my attention that the line between trolling and cyberbullying has become blurred for many. it is my intention to clear up misunderstandings between the two terms.

Trolling

trolling is usually not harmful, and is just used to make others annoyed with you. it incites emotional responses over misunderstandings.

Ken M and Nathan Fielder are two of the most well-known trolls on the internet. Ken M usually pretends to be a difficult to deal with commenter, and Nathan Fielder likes to experiment on various social medias and with the responses of both followers, their friends and families, and the sites themselves

Ken M Ken M usually hangs out in the comments section of Yahoo articles. He presents himself as a commenter whop has completely missed the point of the article, and often doesn’t understand societal norms, or general behaviour.

he then continues this role when replying to other commenters, purposefully misunderstanding their messages until they are silenced by their disbelief of his behaviour.

Nathan Fielder

Nathan Fielder is a comedian, known for his show Nathan For You, a show which, in its essence, is just Nathan trolling people. In the program, struggling businesses come to him for help in gaining more sales. He often comes up with outlandish and unrealistic business ventures and publicity stunts, many of which go viral before they are revealed to be a part of the show.

Dumb Starbucks was a business idea he developed in order to help a struggling cafe. the intention was to trick customers into thinking they were actually in Starbucks, and therefore gain more customers. The coffeehouse went viral before it was revealed to be part of the show Nathan For You.

Nathan is also heavily present on twitter, which he uses to experiment with peoples reactions to text messages.

He will often tweet out a request for a text to be sent by his followers. this text will contain misleading information. he encourages his followers to tweet the responses they receive.

Trolling is very different to cyberbullying, in that it isn’t a personal attack against another. It is often just a way to incite a meaningless emotional response quickly through purposeful misunderstanding or miscommunication. Trolling is harmless, but the term has been evolved by the media to include cyberbullies.

the term “troll” is often used by media outlets as a way of describing cyberbullies, which is incorrect, these people who specifically target individuals and threaten them, or make fun of them are not trolls.

Cyberbullying is an incredibly cruel practice and can be very dangerous, and should not be joked around with. some cyberbullies may see themselves as trolls as they don’t understand the deep psychological impact their taunts are having on their victims. this ability to sense a line and not crossing it is a major difference between trolls and cyberbullies.

Cyberbullying should not be taken lightly, and those who perpetrate this type of behaviour should be punished.

if you, or anyone you know is a victim of cyberbullying, or is struggling in any way, i suggest you talk to someone about it. whether it be friends or family, or an organisation to help those suffering.

here are some organisations who you can speak to anonymously

https://au.reachout.com/

https://kidshelpline.com.au/