Introduction:
This is an issue I wanted to get to and rant about in the meantime, but thought it wasn't worth the blog post. Still, it keeps popping up everywhere I go, especially on places like Youtube which are complete un-moderated troll fests.
The Problem:
So you might be asking, what is the problem then? My problem? Trolling is becoming rather lame, repetitive and ridiculous. For those of you who don't know what trolling is, let me quote Urban Dictionary:
"The art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing people off, usually via the internet, using dialogue. Trolling does not mean just making rude remarks: Shouting swear words at someone doesn't count as trolling; it's just flaming, and isn't funny. Spam isn't trolling either; it pisses people off, but it's lame."
The 2nd part of the trolling definition here is the MOST important for this discussion. A lot of 'trolling' on Youtube is just an excuse to flame and insult people. "Why did you insult that guy?" "FOR TEH LULZ!"
It's not even trolling anymore is the point I'm trying to make! It's devolved into insults and mindless attacks on other people. Even worse, the 'fail trolls' who do this mostly do it to people who take part in fandoms. Fandoms expect some rational hate and many in the fandom will try to correct the troll, which only makes it easy for the troll to try to work one down to raging at him.
Ranting Conclusion:
Trolling isn't even an art anymore when it's used like this, because it loses all originality and isn't even funny for many others to begin with. Someone telling someone else to "Choke to death and die" is not trolling, it's outright insulting and cruel. Some people actually do say and mean these things on the internet, so one has no way to know if the person is trolling or just being a huge dick in the end. As a matter of fact, trolling has become so synonymous with "being an asshole" that the two have practically merged into the same damn thing now.
Not to mention, the trolling performed this way doesn't take a speck of intelligence and seems to lose all flavor, as now it isn't targeting gullibility, but people's affiliations and interests. I've seen negative assholes on the internet intentionally troll only one group of people because they hate that group. Just earlier I saw one of these fail trolls who admitted to only insulting bronies because he despises the group. How sad do you have to be to target a group of people, trolling purely out of one's own rage? Don't get me wrong, it's not that he targets a specific fandom; the problem stems from his hate of the fandom provoking him to ridicule anyone who likes FiM wherever he goes!
It's not even "FOR TEH LULZ" with many of these people. It's raging taken under the excuse of trolling. I really hope people realize how bad this is getting and work to prevent the death of proper trolling. BTW, my next study might involve finding out if the entrance of trolling into the mainstream is causing this. This seems pretty likely as the mainstream seems to destroy everything good off the internet.
