Sure, you might have heard of Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese writer. Who you might have heard less about is his blogging ancestor. After going through so many generations, the joy of combat has not been lost. Talking with Sun Tzu, you get the feeling that this blogger’s been through a lot.
He literally wrote the book on trolling on the internet. Before then, he was a simple student, busy studying furiously. Upon gaining high speed internet access, he followed his passion online. At school, he used grace and wit in putting down others. Online etiquette requires a different approach. Now Sun successfully runs a major wealth management fund. His hobbies include biking, swimming, traveling and anonymously insulting others over the internet.
“Many say that being online, you see the same sorts of put-downs” Sun explained to me in his finely appointed Hong Kong apartment “I was one of the first people to successfully develop the use of all-caps as a form of yelling, years before anyone had caught on. The use of the word ‘faggot’ began with me as well, at least early on. Now it has a negative connotation, so I try to avoid hurtful language.”
Beach Sloth exclaimed that no, all trolling is meant to be hurtful, so avoiding hurtful language was impossible. Calling me a “Massive Failure” and telling me how hard my favorite bands sucked giant Elephant cock, he started to explain.
“Listen, there are many trolls out there, busy annoying others. It takes an exceptional troll to really make the experience worthwhile. You need to do research on who you’re about to troll. Also, the approach differs on what you set out to accomplish, will it be a gentle confirmation of who’s an insider of the group while lightly mocking others, or will it be a harsher take on the stupidity of a said topic.”
“Sites like 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica excel at this sort of glorification of those willing to disrupt conversation online. Honestly, I do find a lot of what they do to be in poor taste, there ought to be some limits. But this is similar to real life; people understand that if they shout stupid nonsense, like in those town hall meetings held in America during the health care debate, they will be subjected to the wrath of the greater community. So no matter what, the balance is maintained between the serious and silly. Reading these sorts of exchanges can be pretty funny, as an outsider.”
Sun continued after getting his daily fix of Memes and pornography for about an hour:
“If everyone on the internet decided to be nice, how boring would that be? Life without conflict is not one worth living; there will always be adversaries to face, even certain members of Al-Qaeda blog about Islam and other social questions. Al-Qaeda might’ve ended up being a bunch of pimply jerks living in their parents’ basement and the world would’ve been far better off for it. Perhaps if more people decided to troll online, a lot of this in real life aggression would dissipate. We could become better people, ready to get along in public to ease the pain of interacting online.”
Thanking Sun for his time, I wondered whether or not this was true. Does trolling work as a form of stress-relief in lower forms, and in higher forms, function as a way to bully others online. What exactly is the line between being humorous and being mean online, or does it depend on one’s perspective. Hopefully I’ve given you something to contemplate before you type out that age-old phrase:
“Don’t feed the Trolls”