Troll – a small word that the internet world has become used to. From common people to celebrities, from children to old people, from politicians to film stars, from single mothers to sports persons – trollers leave no one in peace. How does troll affect people? How should the concerned person respond to trolls?
When a friend says “Trolls are taking a toll” what’s your reaction? Do you say take a chill pill or dig deeper? The second one sounds much practical? Or instinctive? By now you must have started doubting my intention and your eyebrows are frowned upon. So let me tell you troll is nothing new isn’t it? Are we not been teased while coming back from school, are we not ragged in our collages? Are we not humiliated in our workplaces?
Troll is just another form of teasing, ragging, humiliation, insult or in a word attack. We are attacked, for reasons or for no reasons at all. And many or most of the attacks are no less than a crime. Then why do we choose to ignore it? Why do we remain silent? Because we want to avoid consequences.
Then why do we react when we are attacked by unknown people on social media? You will naturally say because we need to protest, we need to stop these dirty minds. Then why don’t we care to stop the dirty behaviour of the dirty minds in our real life?
We have given trollers the opportunity to communicate, we indulged because we need more followers, we need a strong social media presence.
You must have started hating me by now and decided not to read further, right? Must be thinking l belong to the group of trollers. Trust me we all do. We all support them more when we read, forward, spread their words and make those viral. We give them the importance and exactly this is what they want. And trust me we have created it.
We have given them the opportunity to communicate, we indulged because we need more followers, we need a strong social media presence. In order to do so, we fed them and now they want more. We have been allowed to enter through our main door, now they want to enter the bedroom. I know not sounding good at all. But then when entertainment becomes free, celebs are accessible, internet costs less than a packet of rice this is what happens.
These abusive, frustrated trolls are just to insult you. They do it in their colleges, at the bus stop, at local paan shops or on social media. They go after film stars, they go after girls, they go after anyone who is celebrated. They simply suffer from an identity crisis. I believe they are not even trolls, they are losers. The best way to deal with them is to ignore them. If they get worse, block them or report them. Simple.
But do we consider the other kind of trolls? The ones that journalists, columnists and politicians constantly complain about – the Smart Trolls?
Which comes from position and power and in return gave them to influence and money. Exploitation is their way of trolling. They troll the underprivileged. They troll Dalits. They troll people who didn’t agree with them. They troll those who are a threat to their incompetence. They troll women because they don’t believe in equal rights.
I wonder, why are we fighting for such an inane issue of celebs being trolled for this and that when India has much bigger challenges?
Can we now please focus on the real issues? It’s time.
Also Read: A year in pyjama: My tryst with pandemic
(Aparajita Ghosh has been part of the Bengali television and film industry for a little more than a decade. She works as an actor, writer and columnist.)
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Autofintechs.com. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thought to represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.)
