What is Trolling

Troll, in an internet slang that people use on online to deliberately instigate conflict and arguments. It happens anywhere as long as users are free to post their opinions and thoughts freely, e.g. YouTube, Instagram or forums.

How to distinguish?

So, how can we distinguish between trolling and joking? To distinguish, there are a few ways to look out for. They might try to make you angry, exaggerate, act entitled, make things personal or unable to spell things properly.

Tips to handle trolling..

If it is a troll, a few examples on how to handle them are as follow..

1) Ignore them

Do not feed the troll. People who try to troll are trying to slow and bring you down because they are jealous of you. Keep this in mind, ‘when elephants walk, dogs bark alongside‘. Keep moving and do not respond to them. These people feed on the attention you return to them. As long as you do not give them the attention that they want, they are likely to get bored and move on.

2) Respond with facts

Respond with facts. Are there trolls out there trying to spread inaccurate information, rumors or lies? Prove them wrong with facts! You can first try to ask them for evidence. Most of the time, they will not be able to come up with evidence as it is just a rumor and the news will lose its steam eventually since their argument was not proven.

An example of responsive with facts will be Apple when iPhone 6 was released. A lot of rumors were saying that the phone will bend. Apple chooses to address this problem head on by admitting that there was an issue and affected only 9 customers in the first 6 days of sale. Rather than denying, they accepted and disclosed. The issue soon went away and they were able to stop any further controversy.

3) Diffuse with Humor

Laugh it off. Another way to deal with these trolls is to laugh it off by responding with humor. Try responding with humor instead of anger, keep in mind to not stoop to their level. What they want is your reaction, they want to see big reactions and dramas. If you respond with humor instead, it will catch them off guard. According to research, humor is the best way to handle trolls.

For example, the way a telecommunication service provider in the United Kingdom – O2 in the UK replied to one of the tweets a user tweeted on Twitter. They made use of humor to reply and it ended any negativity with regards to that tweet.

4) Block or ban them

Block them. Similar to ignore them, but the difference between blocking and ignoring is that you will not have to see anymore trolling, you will probably not even know they exist. All social media platforms have features to block and ban users who keep trolling. Hence, you can simply choose to block or ban them if they keep harassing you with trolls.

For example, Lauren Conrad has a motto, ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t follow me online‘. She will then immediately delete negative comments and blog all haters from all her social media platforms. She makes an effort to keep her social media positive which is the same way she expects from her followers.

5) Build a supportive, friendly community

Build a positive environment. If your social media platforms are big enough to attract trolls, it means you have a loyal base of followers and it should be way more than the haters. With a positive and supportive community, your followers aka supporters will be there for you and take care of all the trolling on your behalf.

An example, although Argentina lost and football lovers were disappointed that Lionel Messi did not win the match. Some thought his performance was disappointing, but his loyal fans defended him and argued that he should not be blamed for their exit.

Conclusion

Hence, in conclusion, these are some of the ways to deal with trolls. Hope it helps you remove negativity in your life. Let me know if you know of other ways to deal with these trolls!