The Art of Trolling
So the New York Times talked today about the fact that anonymity breeds contempt on the Internet. It’s a good article. And worth reading. But it’s wrong.
It is not the anonymity on the Internet that breeds contempt. It’s simply the fact that it’s the Internet. You can be as rude and as obnoxious as you like because there is no danger of being punched in the face as there would be if you did it face to face.
Of course, I’m talking generalities here for those who might want to point out that somebody may just decide to find out where you live and give you your just desserts. 
I’d never heard of trolling until recently. My only dealings with trolls of any description was from fairy stories. Yes they were mischievous little buggers, but in the grand scheme of things not really evil as such.
Not so the online trolls who go around looking for places where they can wreak havoc and destruction and cause as much pain and suffering to their victims as possible.
Why?
Maybe they have sad little lives and nobody wants to be their friend so they take it out on the rest of the world. It probably doesn’t occur to them that if they didn’t go round trolling they might actually end up with a few friends after all. Trolls tend not to be well endowed in the brain department.
What I fail to understand is why anyone would consider it an ‘art’. I have yet to see any example of trolling that could be deemed in any way, shape or form as particularly artful. If they had a decent vocabulary and could troll in glorious, eloquent speech forms… then perhaps it could pass as art. But I’ve never seen evidence of it.
It’s a sick game, played out by people who have nothing better to do with their lives and are looking for a bit of attention. They don’t have the guts to do it offline so they seek the safety of the Internet, forums, chat rooms, blog comments… anywhere they can get away with it without risking having their faces kicked in by their victims.
Unfortunately, it makes the Internet a not so nice place for the rest of us who have to put up with it.
Photos to Art
