"The willingness of trolling 'vicitims' to be hurt by words, he argued, makes them complicit, and trolling will end as soon as we all get over it."
This article was enlightening and horrifying at the same time. I had no clue that any of the incidents discussed in this article were going on and am a bit disturbed to find out that they things like this really happen. It seemed like some strange fairy tale when I read the information but I realize that there are places out there where these things really do occur.
I included the quote above because I felt that it describes the article and Fortuny's belief in the whole system of trolls. It's funny how he seems to blame this all on the innocent victims. He seems to say, "well people shouldn't take things so personally and just let it roll off their backs." How can anyone say this though while they know they're provoking others to do harmful things to themselves and other people? The best way I felt it was described was as a big game. To these trolls, the internet is one big game with hurtful effects. What really bothers me is that people, like Fortuny and Weev, waste their time, and spend countless hours and energy simply to ruin others' lives. They seem to only want to wreak havoc on innocent people who are trying to take advantage of the positive aspects of the Internet with things like faster communication and better and faster information.
As I began to think about this personally, and to imagine if something like this would happen to me I started to feel frustrated. In my personal situation, I don't have much experience with the Internet. Yet, those trolls out there would be able to take advantage of me and twist and turn information to try to harm me for no apparent reason. However, as I began fighting this argument in my head, I decided that the reason these trolls do things the way they do is because they do things behind the protection of the faceless internet and not face to face. But in truth, I realized what Schwartz stated at the end of the article; that trolls, in reality, are not that big of a problem.
"To say that trolls pose a threat to the internet at this point is like saying that crows pose a threat to farming."
I understand what you're saying Andy, but I still think they are a problem, and pose some kind of threat. Just because (maybe I'm a little over the top, or I just have a bleeding heart) but I think if one person is hurt because of a troll, that's one too many.
It made me sick reading this article because I've never understood why people are just out right mean to other people. Really, like what joy could a person get out of that? I don't get it.
And like I said in my post, and you hinted at...if someone attacked me on the internet, they have so much more skill with that kind of thing, the playing field isn't even fair, so how is that fun to the troll - when you just know you're going to win. I don't know about everyone else, but I actually like the challenge and with this "game" there doesn't seem to be one for the ones doing the damage.