{"id":953,"date":"2017-03-15T18:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=953"},"modified":"2017-03-15T18:00:51","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T18:00:51","slug":"trolls-have-feelings-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/03\/15\/trolls-have-feelings-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Trolls have feelings too"},"content":{"rendered":"

And standards. As cruel as internet trolls can be, there is such thing as \u201ccrossing the line\u201d. There is a whole culture of trolling with various unspoken rules regarding who to target and \u201ctraditions\u201d of content for situations, which fascinated me. Who knew there was a methodology what content was posted and who was okay to troll? Whitney Phillips delves into this subculture in her article \u201c<\/span>LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online<\/span><\/a>\u201d. She focuses on RIP trolls, which she defines as \u201c<\/span>online instigators [who] post abusive comments and images onto pages created for and dedicated to the deceased<\/span>.\u201d Recognizable by their profile pictures and names (like \u201cSoveri Ruthless\u201d or \u201cFrank Bagadonuts\u201d), RIP trolls friend each other and then lead organized attacks on a public Facebook memorial page. They specifically target \u201cI didn\u2019t know you but I\u2019m very sorry you\u2019re dead\u201d posts, which they view as insincere and cheap. For RIP trolls, Facebook is never the appropriate place for grieving, especially for tragedies such as car crashes or kidnapping cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

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No, not these kinds of trolls. Internet trolls generally intend to ruin the intended conversation, via rude and insensitive comments or images. Dreamworks<\/a>, accessed 15 March 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No one should have the power to judge others\u2019 behavior, specifically reactions to death, and determine what is appropriate or not. But hearing the trolls\u2019 perspective made me wonder if their view of online expressions of grief has some credibility. Wilson Mouzone, one of the trolls Phillips interviewed, said that family members don\u2019t deserve the disrespectful treatment by some of the most vicious trolls. Generally, these pages (often private) and users are left alone. But the \u201cgrief-tourists\u201d with no real-life connection to the victim are considered free game. Will trolling help curtail these \u201cinsincere\u201d postings? If so, are we amid a culture shift in online grief culture? Since experiencing death on Facebook is a relatively new phenomenon (as opposed to newspaper obituaries and funerals), we haven\u2019t determined what is culturally acceptable. An analysis of public memorial pages over the past few years regarding the ratio of genuine posts to troll posts would be insightful to examine. Perhaps the RIP trolls\u2019 behavior is having their desired effect and reducing the number of inauthentic postings. More likely, their derogatory comments only incite internal debate\/attacks\/rage on the memorial page regarding the trolls, not about the insincere postings.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A memorial page for Chelsea King. Note that the administrators of the page have done a better job of deleting troll comments (or perhaps the account was reported – in which case, all comments are deleted automatically) and so the discussion revolves around a comment that is no longer there. Screenshot of original page<\/a> taken and edited by author, 15 March 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And standards. As cruel as internet trolls can be, there is such thing as \u201ccrossing the line\u201d. There is a whole culture of trolling with various unspoken rules regarding who to target and \u201ctraditions\u201d of content for situations, which fascinated me. Who knew there was a methodology what content was posted and who was okay … <\/p>\n

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