I recently decided to research online etiquette and debate, after hundreds of commentators lashed out at me, and at each other, because of the experiences and opinions I shared in the article, "You're Pretty, For A Black Girl."

This was my first of many experiences with what scholars call "internet trolling," and what I just thought was five paragraphs of serious Neo-Nazi, extremist Christian propaganda:

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Jenny Preece, Dean of the College of Information Sciences at the University of Maryland, put it well: "In the early days of the Internet, an occasional sarcastic or confrontational remark was considered part of its 'charm.' Times have changed."

And times really have changed, considering the negative stigma surrounding internet debate and commentary. Today, the comments section of almost any article can transform into a sociopolitical battleground between people of various ages, ethnic groups, religions and political affiliations. This trolling phenomenon began in the 1980s, when internet users would “intentionally disrupt online communities, asking stupid questions and seeing who would rise to the bait.” Although trolls are usually associated with fairytales and mythology, the verb trolling was first used to describe a type of fishing "where one would fish by trailing a baited line behind a boat."

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In February, researchers at the University of Manitoba conducted a study to find out why specific individuals enjoy bothering and baiting other online users. One tenth of the 418 participants stated that they enjoyed trolling other users on the internet. Results from the Dark Tetrad personality test additionally "revealed that trolls are, by far, more likely to have narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopathic, and sadistic personality traits." 

Internet trolls should not all be labeled as one evil, corrupt or sadistic group, especially since the main reason people intentionally piss each other off online is boredom. Linguistics Expert Dr. Claire Hardraker of Lancaster University conducted a study with 4,000 participants, resulting in the claim that there are seven reasons people troll the internet. 

But I disagree with the claim that there are only seven reasons people troll the internet, because almost any photograph or article can ignite a stream of jokes, comments and name-calling. Last week, Lance Armstrong tweeted that he had lost his duffel bag, prompting a plethora of responses that were not only hurtful, but completely out of context. 

Users' tweets specifically referred to drugs, pills and Armstrong not only having lost a duffel bag, "but all credibility." And it makes me wonder what trolls get out of inflicting pain and anger onto other people, and whether they feel shame or guilt afterward. 

In the New York Times piece, "The Trolls Among Us," an (anonymous) ex-troll told journalist Matthathias Schwartz that some internet users are "trolling for lulz," something Schwartz defines as "the joy of disrupting another's emotional equilibrium."

"Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh," the troll explained. 

Another anonymous troll even described the steps involved in "trolling for lulz," a phenomena that is so popular that it has several Facebook groups, forum pages and in-depth descriptions on urban dictionary. 

It saddens me that people resort to hurting others to find entertainment before doing anything else, and that intentionally making other people feel a sense of individual shame (particularly about where they come from and who they are) may actually boost some trolls' sense of self-esteem and overall happiness. What is more, people who "troll for lulz" put the approval of complete strangers, who they are not likely to meet or hear from again, before the long-term emotional health of another human being. 

As Andre Meadows, the creator of the Black Comedy Youtube Channel, told CNN's Doug Gross:

For minority creators, when you get comments, it seems to be targeted toward race almost immediately. A lot of people get 'dumb video, stupid video' -- but with mine it immediately goes to racial slurs.

Regardless of whether I've written a piece about race, I still fear that my blackness is the first thing readers will mention. But I doubt race is the only social construct that causes people to feel this way, because as I previously stated, trolling is about using certain words that will stir high-strung emotions in others and self-satisfaction in trolls. It is another sign that contemporary American culture is not post-racial if mocking someone's ancestral background is largely associated with a growing online, American presence. 

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The stereotypical tweets and broadcasts of American political figures and famous celebrities are so common that it seems like they could comprise an entire segment of daily news. However, it was pretty difficult to ignore when the first black president of the United States was referred to as "a chimpanzee" and depicted as a chimpanzee, via several modes of social media. This trend of degrading minorities by giving them animalistic qualities extends far beyond the black experience in America. I did a social experiment to see what photographs would appear after typing the extremely broad term "Asians" into the Twitter search bar. The results grew worse as I scrolled down, as live dogs sat photoshopped into bowls of rice and nude women laid covered in frogs. Many of the photo descriptions made blatant references to "them" or "Asians," intentionally separating yet another minority into feeling a bitter sense of otherness. 

Although social constructs like race and gender add further dimensions to discussions and slurs, the issue of trolling really comes down to how humans universally treat each other. The trolling movement has developed with the increased use of internet and technologies that develop with it, and we must find a way to encourage internet users to engage in healthy debate before demeaning attacks. Although trolls have gained a reputation for being older men who sit in basements on their computers, just waiting for the next conversation or conflict to chime in on, any one can troll the internet. Because any one can use their words to intentionally hurt someone else and to feed off that pain to forget their own.

However, while gaining a few "lulz" may feel satisfying in the moment, I highly doubt scientists intended for the internet to serve as a tool that would eventually create a disconnect among the human race. 

 

"Shameless" is a series by NT Columnist Maya Richard-Craven on shame and social status in the millennial generation.

Read more "Shameless" here. Contact Columnist Maya here.