A Vicious Mockery
There are no more LOL's. This is serious. Completely scary. Unbelievable. Just plain on WOW!
This is my first experience with the term troll until now. I was completely blown away about the story of Megan Meier and how a simple troll could destroy such a young girl's life. The fact that a mother of one of Megan’s former friends created a fictional male character whom Megan later fell for is unthinkable, but reality. To know there is a growing Internet subculture filled with a fluid morality and disdain for online users is unreal.
"Drew later said she hoped to find out whether Megan was gossiping about her daughter."
- Malweblolence
It is horrible to read that people, in this case a mother, use the Internet to torment other individuals for laughs and giggles. I think it is people like these so called trolls that create problems in our world today, not just on the internet.
The internet is such a powerful world and a sort of luxury, why would people want to intentionally disrupt online communities with lies and deceit?
Trolls exploit insecurities to obtain drama and laughs and they do whatever it takes to achieve this. It is with this article, that I have become a little uneasy about the internet, security and what information I put out there on the web. I'm kind of freaked out. Aren't you?
This is my first experience with the term troll until now. I was completely blown away about the story of Megan Meier and how a simple troll could destroy such a young girl's life. The fact that a mother of one of Megan’s former friends created a fictional male character whom Megan later fell for is unthinkable, but reality. To know there is a growing Internet subculture filled with a fluid morality and disdain for online users is unreal.
"Drew later said she hoped to find out whether Megan was gossiping about her daughter."
- Malweblolence
It is horrible to read that people, in this case a mother, use the Internet to torment other individuals for laughs and giggles. I think it is people like these so called trolls that create problems in our world today, not just on the internet.
The internet is such a powerful world and a sort of luxury, why would people want to intentionally disrupt online communities with lies and deceit?
Trolls exploit insecurities to obtain drama and laughs and they do whatever it takes to achieve this. It is with this article, that I have become a little uneasy about the internet, security and what information I put out there on the web. I'm kind of freaked out. Aren't you?
I certainly am! I was even afraid to blog about this article for fear that "trolls" mentioned in it would hunt me down. After I read this article all I could think was, what has happened to people? Has technology been that damaging that people can treat other human beings this way? Or have people always had the capacity to treat one another this way and have they just been empowered by the internet?
"Trolls exploit insecurities to obtain drama and laughs and they do whatever it takes to achieve this."
It is like an online version of Punk'd...but a lot more intense. I believe that it shows how sick some of the corners of the internet are. That is all the more reason why we should be careful about what we believe.
I'm very uneasy now about everything that I put on the internet. I'm just as puzzled as you are as to why people would waste their time to destroy others, but then again, every society has people like that.
In response to your questions Jackie, I feel that, like you said, people feel empowered by this internet and feel that they are able to dominate and be in control of this imaginary world called the Internet.
Haha Nice picture...seriously though, I think I'm going to be a little more careful online from now on. Who knows who might be lurking around in the dark.