poofyhairguy
Lifer
- Nov 20, 2005
- 14,612
- 318
- 126
I have the internet. I understand if some people may think it's "funny" or "hilarious" to be dishonest and mean on the internet and anonymity is great, but it would be a much nicer place if there were no trolls.
There is no way to not have trolls, it is human nature. When someone says that you can't walk on the grass or you can't eat this one fruit then that is all we can think about. It is ingrained in us to compete, which means tearing other people down is just as natural as building ourselves up.
This isn't some internet created phenomenon, otherwise Cards Against Humanity wouldn't be so popular. In modern society entertainment value is almost equivalent to shock value, and the lowest hanging fruit on that is whatever people are sensitive about.
It is like the word retarded. It is actually a real term that dates back to 1426- long before modern times. In the 1950's it was basically a medical term. But today it is a cuss word. Why? Because people have taken the word and used it as an insult to people who aren't mentally disabled. So there are these big crusades to get rid of the "r-word" and to change it to mentally challenged, but that is just a cosmetic change. The reason the word retarded became a cuss word is still there- calling someone a less functional human being is considered to be a good insult by those who want to insult others. So now teenage boys call each other shortbus, or mentally disabled, and eventually they will have to move to ANOTHER word in a constant flee from the reality that people are crappy.
Twitter is facing the same problem. If they demonize the blatant trolls and run them off then soon we will have "code trolling" where completely common words begin to mean crappy things because of the connotation that will be given to them by necessity. Suddenly it will be harder to pick out a troll, just like it is harder in 2015 than 1950 to identify a racist, and the same crappy people will still be terrorizing the same thin skinned normals.
The solution is time. In 30 years every adult will have read Youtube comments and will be experienced to trolls. Everyone will have a little thicker skin because they will realize that is preferable than wasting a ton of time playing whack a mole with offensive phrases. The only reason we are dealing with this now is those Baby Boomers were a freak generation- they didn't have the coarseness of their parents nor the forced exposure to the worst of humanity like any 9 year old with an internet connection has. Once that generation dies off the PC thing will sort itself out.