Throughout this unit, we came across the cliche saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." When I was younger, it seemed as if that saying was my motto. No matter what anyone said to me, there was no way of it hurting me. However, as I got older, I realized that words really can hurt you. I was unaware of the emotional and psychological pain and damage you can feel from the words people say to you. Though that pain is not physical, it's still real pain. Honestly, I feel most of us have experienced more emotional pain than physical. Many people are unaware that some of the things they say to someone might actually hurt them. Sadly, the horrible things people say to others not only happen in real life, but they have become more familiar on the internet.
Many people on the internet continue to get harassed by people they may know, but mainly by people they don't even know at all. When we brought up the topic of trolls, I didn't know so many things were considered trolls. Besides thinking of the baby troll dolls, I thought trolls would go on these social media sites to be funny and make jokes. I didn't know that you were considered a troll if you harassed someone with horrible remarks. It is just unsettling that some people can be so cruel to others. With the Zelda Williams case, the trolls were just horrible, however, she made a wise decision. She decided to take herself out of the situation which is smart. Trolls will continue to find a way. They want to tear down a person because they probably are not comfortable with themselves.
While reading the article written by Farhad Manjoo, I came across a really relevant quote. It stated, "...trolls will be difficult to contain because they really reflect base human society in all its ugliness." I couldn't agree more. Not to sound cliche, but we do live in a cruel. Trolls will continue to be horrible as long as our society is the same. As stated in Manjoo's article, "It's not a question of whether or not we're winning the war on trolling, but whether we're winning the war on misogyny, or racism, and ableism and all this other stuff." In my opinion, we should pay no mind to trolls. Though what they do may be "extreme" as in Lindy Wests' situation, the best solution is to eliminate yourself from the problem.
I really like that you brought up the quote "... trolls will be difficult to contain because they really reflect base human society in all its ugliness" because it couldn't be anymore true. I think that is Farhad Manjoo's most important claim, that as long as people continue to be cruel, we will never be able to stop the trolls. No matter how much restriction there is on the web, which is not much, trolls will always find a way to get online.
ReplyDeleteLindy Wests' situation was extreme, and I liked how she addressed the problem. She could have easily deleted all of her social media, but instead she just stood up to the trolls. Although that article was the most interesting to me, I found it hard to identify her claim. She tells us about her experience, but I was not able to pinpoint what she was really trying to tell us. Were you able to identify her claim?