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What is the motivation behind an internet troll? We often think of them as some socially awkward teenager who, whilst internet savvy, would crumble under the pressure if you could somehow confront them in person.
A bit over a year ago, Australian media personality Charlotte Dawson took her own life after suffering depression coupled with life’s woes. It was yet another tragic loss of someone who felt there was no silver lining on the dark cloud which hovered above. A beautiful woman who friends say was outwardly a fun, generous and vivacious person, it was reported that online bullying played its role in pushing her over the edge.
But why do trolls exist? News.com.au spoke to an anonymous troll who called himself “Mark”. Whilst in his early to mid-teens, Mark began engaging in what he and his friends called “RIP trolling”, which basically involved trolling memorial Facebook pages of public figures who had passed away. News.com.au reported that Mark explained he did this because it gave him “a feeling of enjoyment and power over causing their family members distress and pain and anger”.
Trolls often take part in some seriously heavy stuff for seemingly no reason at all. It is both mind-numbingly pointless and distressing. But the frustrating thing is, that seems to be the point. Mark continued; “For example if a girl killed herself I would just say something like ‘RIP. Couldn’t handle the guilt of being an immense slut any longer.’ You don’t need much to set their family members off,” he said.
It is people like Mark that cause so much distress for the victims. There are some who believe that if it is only something typed from an anonymous stranger then it can’t do too much damage. But that simply isn’t true. In speaking to news.com.au, he told of how he believed he could have issues of his own. He acknowledged that his behaviour isn’t “normal” and offered “I definitely have psychopathic tendencies”.
It is reported that since those days, he has not let up and in fact, has joined up with other like-minded trolls from around the world, who pool their negativity and take aim with racist, misogynistic and often violent threatening. He says that he doesn’t mean the things he says necessarily but will pick on a point someone is open to, just for the sake of it, or to satisfy his dark side.
He has been kicked off both Facebook and Twitter hundreds of times but is persistent and remorseless. “When you first start … you feel bad about it sometimes. But once you’ve been doing it for years, you don’t think about it at all,” he told news.com.au.
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