NORWALK, Conn. — Words are really weird. Take the word “troll.” When I was a kid listening to fairy tales and nursery rhymes (and more recently while reading the Harry Potter series), trolls were these evils creatures that lurked in dark, scary places, kind of like the “loathsome troll” made famous in one of the late Shel Silverstein’s poems.
Later, a little older, troll became a fishing term my brothers and I used in the lakes and rivers of southern New Jersey as we sought to trick mostly pickerel and bass with artificial lures. I’ll never forget the blank expression on my fifth grade teacher’s face when I asked how the same word could mean two rather distinct things.
(Nor will I forget the discussion with my friends after school that day. We concluded that trolls and fishermen were basically out to trick either children or fish into doing something bad or stupid, and thus why not use the same word.)
And now, as a middle aged adult, the term has an even stranger, but somewhat related, meaning: a troll is someone on the Internet, usually a blog, who tries to derail discussions with outlandish statements, nasty accusations and provocations. The goal is to provoke, entrap, kind of like catching one of those pickerel.
And I must admit, while reading NancyOnNorwalk, which I like very much because the stories are plentiful, informative, and interesting, I have developed a new appreciation of the lengths these trolls, with their anonymous names, will go to derail discussions and upset others. I call what they do the “no good, mean and nasty person” provocation.
These troll-ments are rarely directed at Nancy; instead, they are usually reserved for the characters in the stories. For instance, she might write a story about something the Common Council or the BOE did. And the comments will be okay, either for or against, and actually quite interesting, and then, out of the blue, boom, someone will post a troll-ment that is either a complete non-sequitor or a personal attack against someone mentioned in the story or one of the other commentators.
Occasionally, these blasts from nowhere derail the discussion for a while, and then, again out of the blue, someone new will join the discussion and post a comment on the real substance of the story, and things may or may not get back to normal. This makes for choppy reading, to put it mildly.
What’s strange about all this, and reflects on the power of anonymity, is that this could never happen among a group of people sitting around having a live debate or discussion. Imagine:
“I think the capital budget is a little too low this year, said John.
“But we need to control our debt service,” Jane replied.
“Councilman Smith should be kicked out of the Council,” said Mike.
“I think we could increase it a little,” John concluded.
“Smith is nasty, absurd, and a jerk. He should be kicked out,” said Mike.
“Yes. A small increase might be okay,” said Jane.
“John and Jane are stupid, I mean really stupid!” Mike shouted.
Now, if this were to happen in a live discussion, people would begin to think that Mike is not playing with a full deck, and they would be absolutely right. But on the Internet, especially behind the cloak of anonymity, some people would rather have a little of what they strangely perceive as fun than participate in meaningful discussions.
Shel Silverstein warned generations of children to “Be wary of the loathsome troll that slyly lies in wait…” I would recommend adult Internet users to “Ignore the loathsome troll that slyly lies in wait…”
Leave a Reply
You must Register or Login to post a comment.