Internet Bullies (and trolls)

Do people not have anything better to do than to spend their time criticizing people they don’t even know, from behind their computer screens?

I think about how easy kids have it these days by having access to the internet. So much knowledge waiting to be absorbed with the stroke of a few keys and a couple clicks of a mouse. When I was young (I’m dating myself here, but whatevs) my mom bought a big set of encyclopedias for us to use as reference, but all other references had to be procured by physically going to the library and browsing through books on the shelf that may or may not be useful. I couldn’t type up a research paper and email to my teacher for credit either. Nooooo. I had to type it out on a typewriter (using white out or white out tape when I made a mistake) and hand it in to my teacher.

But, then I think about kids being bullied and judged through the internet and then I realize that while there’s so much information easily obtained for them, there are also downfalls to the world wide web that we never had to deal with.

It doesn’t just extend to kids though. For those of you who aren’t all that familiar with blogland and online sites, people will go online and post extreme comments/opposing views on articles and blogs, just so they can watch the craziness unfold. Maybe they just want to be entertained by the drama that ensues, maybe they have nothing better to do with their life than to annoy people?

For example, I made this comment on that ridiculous article of feminism I linked to last week

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.32.25 AM

I know that feminism is a hot topic and while I am open to opposing views, there are people that just take it to the extreme. Here are two people who decided they would “reply” to my comment.

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.32.37 AM Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.33.08 AM

At first I read them and wanted to respond, so I did…

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.33.28 AMAnd so did someone else…

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.32.57 AMbut then I started going through the other comments and I realized that these two people (and others!) were making ridiculous comments on everyones posts. They must have spent hours reading, commenting and replying. They are clearly sad, pathetic souls and I had to ignore my impulse to entertain them by replying any more. They’re just picking a fight and to quote Mark Twain, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” People who comment just for the sake of arguing are called “trolls”. They troll the comments and hot topic articles just to fight with people for entertainment. They cannot be reasoned with and aren’t worth your time. They also feed on your replies and crave the attention. Note the above reply that was made when no one was taking their bait.

Just yesterday I was reminded about another crappy part of the internet…a site called GOMI. It’s short for “Get Off My Internet”. In a nutshell, it’s a whole website/blog/forum dedicated to criticizing bloggers that they don’t like. It makes fun of their posts, makes fun of their looks, makes fun of who they are. You name it, someone on there is complaining about what so and so is doing or wearing or saying. My question is WHY? Why do you care what someone is doing? If it’s not hurting you, why do you care?! Why are you spending your time on an online forum complaining about people? The sad part is that it’s mostly WOMEN cutting down other women! These are grown ass women bullying other women. Ridiculous!

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s weird to put bloggers on a pedestal and sometimes people get idolized for an online persona that isn’t real life, but even still, I’m also not going to waste my time by sitting around a forum all day and trash talking them. If someone annoys me online, guess what? I simply don’t visit their site. I don’t read the comments of peoples adoration. I just go on with my life!

It’s also saddens me that people can be so judgmental and mean. Just let people be whoever they want to be and if you don’t like it, don’t look at it!

*stepping off soapbox*

Thankfully, my little blog is still a diamond in the rough and not widely known so I haven’t had to deal with bullying or online criticism, but I’m curious if any of my readers have? If so, how do you handle the haters?

WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.