I passed one of my very intelligent colleagues in the hall today, and she said, “Loved your post on trolls, I kind of figured it was a metaphor.” I had somewhat been thinking of it in that way, but her observation drove home the point for me….”There are trolls everywhere!!”
See my previous post on the Psychology of Trolls (Internet that is).
But quite frankly, trolls are everywhere. They exist in the lives of almost all of us. They may be bosses, family members, coworkers, associates, and so forth. They get you boiling. They get your emotions going. They say things they shouldn’t to stir you up. They push your buttons, and you lash out at them.
Now, the same thing applies to trolls in your life as applies to trolls in cyberspace. DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS. Your emotional reactions will serve as food for the trolls in your life. If you’re a kid, a troll might be a bully. He makes you want to cry or kill him or her. Don’t give the troll the satisfaction. By responding emotionally and lashing out, you feed the troll.
Sometimes on message boards the only approach is to set limits on the troll. He or she might be banned from a message board. There may be times when a troll is bad enough that you seek someone with the power to reign in the troll. I think you know what I am talking about. But most often the best approach is to not feed the troll with your emotional reactions. This often serves as ‘reinforcement’ and only increases their trollish behavior.
So, good luck with those trolls in your lives, and remember not to feed them…