ФІЛОЛОГІЯ XXI СТОЛІТТЯ: ТЕОРІЯ, ПРАКТИКА, ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ

Цвик Г.М.
магістр кафедри прикладної лінгвістики НУ «ЛП»
Strategy of Trolling as a Method
of Psychological Manipulation
An «Internet troll» or «Forum Troll» or «Message Board Troll»
is a person who posts outrageous message to bait people to answer.
Forum Troll delights in sowing discord on the forums. A troll is
someone who inspires flaming rhetoric, someone who is purposely
provoking and pulling people into flaming discussion. Flaming discussions
usually end with name calling and a flame war.
Nowadays, the phenomenon of trolling other people online is
considered a bad thing. But it has not always been so. Trolling was
a noble cause once, perpetrated by Usenet veterans, who would pull
simple and innocent general ignorance type of jokes on unsuspecting
newbie’s. There was much rejoicing and a handful of tears, but in the
end, people learned through whimsical, violent allegories.
Lately, trolling has become synonymous with mass spam and viral
videos, with regurgitated catch phrases and inane jokes practiced
by more computer savvy against the web plebes. There are some
advantages and disadvantages of trolling:
I. Positive influence of trolls:
1) Trolls give fresh prospective to discussions.
2) Trolling add spice to otherwise suave web pages.
3) Visitors feel that Author is liberal and takes criticism with
same ease as he would allow compliments.
4) Sometimes it’s ribaldry which adds more visitors because
people want to read piquant things.
5) Having only polite and genteel comments would make cyber
world unsubstantial.
II. Negative influence of trolls:
1) Trolls are like weeds. If not trimmed on time they can crowd
out.
2) They can really force genuine readers of a site to be on the
back seat by targeting them.
3) Some people can not take the pressure created by Trolls and
thus discontinues the cyber world forever.
4) Responding to trolls give them the undeserved recognition.
5) Reverting to them may impact some authors’ peace of mind
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