Trolls are weak

Trolls. Trolls are people who are weak and have nothing better to do. Let me tell you really what a troll is: someone who is weak and has nothing better to do. I honestly don't see the point in trolling. You're going online to make someone feel bad and on top of that you're anonymous. When someone posts something online or anything of that nature they don't want some random person saying rude things about what they're talking about. The satisfaction these trolls get from ruining peoples lives is sickening. I believe the reason people troll is because they are insecure with themselves and have issues coping with that. They cope with it by writing rude comments under peoples post and being anonymous at that. Trolling can have a huge effect on peoples lives causing them to harm themselves and even kill themselves.

-Tim Bowen

One of Society's Problems

Trolling is a serious problem. These are probably the most annoying things right now in our society. The world has evolutionized to use the internet for everything in life, like this blogging. People use things like this to say what they want and get things off their chest or just to be open about things in general. However, people like to believe it is okay to harass or bully someone because they are hiding behind a screen or for another unnecessary reason. People these days are cruel and have no actual morals to life, or even a sense of common courtesy.

Yeah, everybody's speech is protected by the First Amendment but there is no reason to abuse the right. There is no need to respond to other people’s posts with such cruel, nasty, and irrelevant comments that anybody should care about. We see more of this now because of how fast technology has moved but I think the cruelty was always there. People were just afraid to say anything face to face but now that there is way to say something to someone without saying it to their face.

However, no matter where someone goes in life, there is always  going to be that points out your flaws or whisper unnecessary comments. I believe people that post comments like that are either self-centered and narcissistic. Some don’t give themselves enough credit that they have to stoop low and say horrible things to others so that the victim feel the same as them.  While others just don’t know how to keep their mouths shut and keep scrolling down. How can people be like that towards other people?

-Elena M.

Internet as a Community

With recent events regarding internet trolling and cyber-bullying, let's not forget about the great things that the Internet brings to us. It's a platform where everyone internationally can gather and share culture and experience. Throughout the years, the internet has become the birthplace of innovation and the home of many great causes like kickstarter or gofundme, programs designed for the public to unite and help people in need. It is also a valuable resource that students, teachers, and practically everyone can use for free education and knowledge. That doesn't take away from the issue of trolling, but it seems to overshadow and erase all the good things that we have gotten from the internet. The other day, I was reading about how a woman ran out of gas and was stranded in the middle of a highway. A homeless man told her to keep her doors locked and used his last $20 to walk to the nearest station and came back with a canteen of gasoline. Later that night, that woman came back with her boyfriend to return the cash, provide him with shelter for the night, and started a fundraiser online to support him. That program went on to raise over $300,000 for that homeless man's good deed, and he currently has a place to eat, sleep, and is in the process of finding a job. These kind of events are just one among many, and it shows the amazing support that a united online community can provide. What benefits do you appreciate the most from the internet?

Lip Slip

What's nice, what's a bit too harsh? Everyone has their own standard for identifying these things in speech and in writing. One person might find the word "damn" as a word used to offend, when someone else might use it to congratulate a friend.
Who do we leave in charge for assigning what it considered appropriate and what is not acceptable? No one has a completely neutral enough mind to decide this, we all lean towards a side.

It's harder than ever to actually express yourself and say what you feel without someone being offended and attacking you. You can't breathe without someone flinching at the air you waste. How can we express our freedom to believe in what we want when someone in the depths of the internet is just waiting for you to turn around so they can pounce on you and deconstruct every word you exhaled until you are left speechless and afraid to ever let your tongue slip from the safety of silence? 

Benefit to Being Anonymous

As we near the end of this unit, I have realized that there are many positive uses to anonymous identities online. One of the examples discussed was the benefit of being able to discuss sensitive topics without people knowing who you are, or what you are possibly going through. I agreed that people should be able to remain anonymous for the purpose of  helping them talk about difficult things, such as, health conditions. My mom recently got diagnosed with autoimmune disease, a disease in which the body's immune system attacks healthy cells, but did not really understand what this condition was originally. Being able to remain anonymous online allowed her to ask questions without feeling like she’s putting a spotlight on herself. A lot of research shared regarding health conditions is posted by anonymous users because they can speak out without fear of judgement. If we try to stop trolls by stopping anonymous users it could prevent the people seeking help from being helped. I do not think those who chose to use their anonymous rights in harmful ways should be able to take them away from those who use them as they should. In other words, we cannot chose to censor the positive conversations because a few people who cause harm because they have nothing better to do.
-Brooke Sasse

Stop Compl-ating!

Compl-ating, otherwise known as complaining/ hating. Many times we don't realize that we're complaining or hating until it's brought to light by a source other than yourself. It's this action of compl-ating that is only adding to the issues of trolling and other online bullying. As millennials, we are known for being for gay rights, wanting Bernie as President and also being very sensitive to all topics. Now, I'm not talking about the golden moments of our sensitivity like how the younger generations have been upset at the disrespect and poking fun at of other race and cultures during Halloween. I'm talking about the arguments many have started on taking in other cultures into your own. There have been many times when I've been scrolling through my Tumblr feed and see an argument brewing because some Korean star has "offended" the black community by having dreadlocks, or someone has started a long-winded rant about fetishizing biracial children.

How can we be so supportive and expressive of our freedoms to speech and expression, when we turn around and start "compl-ating" about people who do just that? This ties in with our Online and Anonymous topic because people do have the right to like and do as they please without everyone being in their business. Anonymity has its benefits along with its weak points. What are your thoughts on this? - Maya Washington

How I feel about the anonymous trolling I feel like trolling should be handled and they should get reported because they make the front of people that's goes through something. trolls laugh at people face and think its okay, but these type of things is serious. people kill their self because of trolling and doesn't help when you confront the trolls because they going to respond back and think its funny but should we-we respond back? , confront the troll? Do you think responding would make us feel better about our selves  ? just feel like ignoring is so much better. I feel like blocking is good too if your not a celebrity or also reporting. these trolls they are cruel and have no morals for nobody and that's how I personally feel and maybe they doing this because they getting anger out or because their jealous and that's how I feel I feel some trolls go through things in life and they want to see people suffer with them and make their life miserable for no reason and they do it to the innocent people that didn't do nothing bad to them and trolls want the attention, trolls want to be mess up, trolls want to be bully because they have a fake page and nobody can't do the same thing to them because we don't know who the trolls are. - Christine Walton