Why People Become Internet Trolls | Hacker News Reader

Why People Become Internet Trolls

dradambell.com

15 pointsrchaudhary11 comments

One that was not emphasized enough is that people have learned that you can get a lot of attention by being a troll. You speak out without regards to other people and you'll get people to follow you just because you are saying what other wished they could say. A lot of internet influencers have created a career by doing that.

The article is right, Empathy deficit, is definitely a cause. I know that for many people it is hard to understand that there is a human with feelings on the other side of the internet. Having a real picture of the other person would solve a small bit of that. But ultimately the only thing that would help would be to figure out how to get users to get to know each other better.

Trolling has existed long before the internet. Prank phone calls, ding dong ditch, antagonizing your younger siblings... there's a certain satisfaction with experiencing the fruits of your virtually consequence-free social manipulation efforts.

It makes you think "wow, with just words I was able to rile someone up into conniptions" while simultaneously thinking "how are these people taking this so seriously? I am able to keep my cool on the internet"

>wow, with just words I was able to rile someone up into conniptions

Your description of the mindset is accurate. What's interesting to me is how common it is, considering how irrational it is. Scoffing at the emotional result of "just words" is like scoffing at the physical result of "just bombs". At its root, it's usually a hypocritical expression along the lines of "people are too sensitive", but also, "I want to provoke people as much as possible".

I always thought people became trolls for the passive aggressive power. It's like telling a manager an employee did something really bad when all they did was tell you that you couldn't do/say/whatever something. It's a weird sort of fetish.

"Trolling" has very little to do with Sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, or machiavellianism.

An troll has there priorities, they target a certain group of people just to get a rise out of them.

Because it's fun? That's the main reason I can see.

For the lulz? Less idiomatically, to relieve boredom with no consideration that their victims are real people.

I feel like this used to account for nearly all trolling, whereas now a significant portion of it crosses over into an expression of hatred, if the troll perceives the target to be of an opposing ideological group.

Site overwhelmed, cache here

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DwqAFQ...

Great read!

When I was 14 and got online I liked trolling websites that I knew had older userbases. Like one time I had a 50 year old man reacting to my troll posts it was hilarious to see

Because some people are just juvenile, and are a little broken inside. It's not complicated.

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