Have You Paid the Trolls at the Troll Plaza?

As you get onto the social media highway and start gaining social media currency, along with becoming something/someone more meaningful in the offline world, chances are - that you would have gained significant clout and there would be people following you/your fans who would want to hear what you got to say and see what you got to show.

Let me break the bubble by saying that this social media highway is not a smooth cruise! You will encounter a number of speed breakers in the form of troll plazas that will try to halt you, slow you down, and deter you from your path so that your ride to your destiny and destination is filled with pitfalls. 

And if you happen to be a celebrity of any sort in any field, then the payment to the trolls will be much higher! So the two questions that come to mind are:

1. Why and where are these troll plazas?
2. What is the payment that they seek, that will allow you to pass through them and what payment should never be given to them?

But before that, let us first be clear on who or what is a troll? You never know, the symptoms and behavior that you display would indicate that you could be a troll yourself!

A troll is a person on the online world, who doesn’t know you personally but yet believes that he knows you, your personality and your life very well. He feels that it is his prerogative to point out what you are doing wrong in life, how pathetic your choices and actions are, how stupid your looks, your knowledge or your fashion sense is, etc… Basically, this person will find a flaw in something or the other in you, and make it his agenda to not only point it out to you but also to the entire world as that is the only way he can make a mark of himself in the social world. Quite often, these trolls are hidden behind fake identities and if not, then they feel powerful behind their online profiles, sitting in the comfort of their room and blurting out their unwanted and unsolicited advice and views. 

Coming back to the question that I raised ‘Why and where are these troll plazas?’. The reasons troll plazas exist is because of multiple reasons:

         i. Some trolls feel terrible about their own life as they haven’t achieved anything and for them, pulling down others who are doing well is a way of coming to peace with their own misery. 

       ii. Sometimes, they do not like your face and are unable to fathom the reason for your success and hence they will find every opportunity to point out your flaw.

      iii. Jealousy is another big emotion that drives a lot of trolls because sometimes when they see people who were lucky enough to get the chances that they got by either being at the right place at the right time or by being born to parents who had achieved immense success (sons and daughters of celebrities), they feel that life has been unfair to them and the only way to get even with life is by being vindictive and vicious to people who had better stars in their favour. 

       iv. Sometimes trolls wear the cloak of moral police and according to them, people are supposed to behave, act and dress up as per the standards and norms that seems correct to the trolls and when one doesn’t follow those codes, the trolls are not able to bear it. 

      v. Hero worship is another reason why trolls exist. They are so blindly in love or adulation of their heroes that if someone has a different point of view or someone says something against their hero, they feel that it is their duty to come forward and protect their hero, who may not even care or notice what the other person has to say about them. 

      vi. Intolerance to another point of view or a different religious philosophy is another reason why a plethora of trolls float around the stratosphere of social media, with their weapon of trash talk ready in their minds that just makes way the minute the fingertips type it out and bring it alive. 

These trolls can be found on each and every platform that exists, which is accessible to the public at large. So one could encounter these troll plazas on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, blog, websites and the list can go on and on. 

This brings me to the second question of ‘what do these trolls at the troll plazas want?’ 

The biggest high for any troll is to get noticed, get talked about, get a reply from the person being attacked, get likes or retweets on his comment that proves to him that people have really enjoyed what he has to say. All of this emboldens him to do more of such things. 

If a troll has attacked you for the first time, the best way to move forward is to ignore the person and not even acknowledge him. Some of the trolls may realize the futility of attacking you and may back off. If the troll continues to attack you further, a witty and smart reply can be a tactic that can be deployed. If you are a celebrity with a strong following, chances are that your fans will latch onto your reply and share it with others and you will have the upper hand while a troll will fall flat on his face. If the troll continues his attack and is getting vicious in his language, you can either block him, report him or share his comment/tweet with your friends and fans so that they can tackle him because a troll is like a bully, who can attack a single person, but when he is faced with a huge crowd going after him, he will quickly get into his shell. 

If you are the one who is being attacked, and you decide to stop and get into a verbal argument with the troll, the task of the troll has been achieved and he has been able to derail you from your track. That is a heavy payment to be made from your side. It is not worth it. This is the route to be avoided. This is the payment that shouldn’t be made at any troll plaza, irrespective of how angry or frustrated you feel. 

What are your suggestions and ways to pay the trolls at these troll plazas? I would love to know from you.