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Hey, all. I was thinking about this practice and I wanted to get an idea of how much people feel that they do it.
For me, "trolling" is very specifically making outrageous statements to make people upset. They can be obviously wrong, or they can be unusual or controversial opinions held deniably ("I didn't mean it; I was just joking").
Trolling can feel great, in the way that a lot of negative attention can feel great. Unlike people being angry about something you sincerely express, trolling feels better because you don't have to defend what you said. You didn't mean it, after all. It was just a goof.
@evan Trolling is isomorphic to being a “Schrödinger‘s Douchebag:” If you agree, I made my point. If you disagree, why is comedy illegal?
They’re both “heads I win, tails why are you such a snowflake.”
@evan Trolling is isomorphic to being a “schrödinger‘s asshole:” If you agree, I made my point. If you disagree, why is comedy illegal?
They’re both “heads I win, tails why are you such a snowflake.”
@evan In your definition, is trolling always intentional or can it be accidental? (Asking as someone who was sometimes accused to be a troll but didn't mean to.)
I can really enjoy trolling, but I try not to do it. First, because it's really frustrating for my kids when I do it. Especially when they were small, it was confusing and irritating.
Second, because I am not very confident there is a clear line between saying something you don't mean and saying something you do. If you say something sexist "as a joke", how is it different than saying it sincerely? Because you don't "really" believe it? That might be lying to yourself. You dug it up from somewhere and said it out loud (or online); you upset people with what you said.
Regardless, I do continue to do it. My typical troll is examining or investigating a niche or trivial idea in a serious way. I am both pretending and not pretending when I do this. I acknowledge that they are unusual things to pay attention to, but I do pay that attention. And I do know that it will be confusing or upsetting for some people, although I don't think that's the primary point. But I do it anyways.
@evan we do a little trolling
@evan it was so tempting to pick "always", just to troll you. 🤭
@evan never but I think people think I am trolling them sometimes, when I am being especially dim
@evan I voted "rarely" in acknowledgement that trolling is in the eye of the trolled, and though never intentional on my part, maybe someone perceives my behaviour as such.
@evan I chose to interpret "trolling" in a broader sense than I normally do, as including affectionate and inside-joke trolling (the kind of trolling that is not at the expense of someone else, but try to express good feelings and build on whatever topic we're exploring). Maybe my choice to interpret trolling in this way is a bit of trolling come to think of it! So that makes me not rarely, but more often.
@evan "never" for people I do not know. I will troll people I am friend with, but "how I treat my friends" and "how I treat strangers/acquaintances" are very different things.
@evan Pretty rarely, but sometimes I kind of do it without thinking about it. Like I'll post what I think is an obvious joke, someone will take it seriously, and the temptation to double down is always there.
@evan i think trolling was fun until ~2017 and died along with a lot of other internet culture when crypto/gaming/right-wing stuff became the norm on twitter