Virtual Parade Tormented by Trolls
By: Nasir Jones
Jan 26, 2021
No matter what time, and no matter who it is, trolling always occurs. For those who are not aware of this term, trolling defines as the act of intentionally upsetting people on the internet, from behind their screens. While the internet continues to grow bigger and bigger, trolling just doesn’t seem to go away. The reason for that, trolling isn’t illegal. There’s no guilt, consequences, sympathy. No one gets reprimanded at the end. No one knows what these trollers get from doing these things. A recent act of trolling was displayed at our very own Carver Peace Out 2020 Parade, streamed live on Youtube.
On December 23, 2020, the last day of school before winter break, Carver streamed a virtual parade on youtube, featuring the Enginettes, Carver Drumline, and countless students from advisories, classes, and clubs. However, this parade was was ruined by unidentified trolls. After the Parade, Principal Domers emailed the school community to address the comments in the chat, calling them "negative, racist, homophobic and mysogynistic."
Several students, like Ramirrah Reid, a Junior at E&S jumped into the chat, asking the trolls to stop their attacks. She spoke up with a simple phrase: "This is why we can’t have nice things at E&S.”
Screenshot of Dr. Domer's Email
After a situation like that, it’s hard to think of a reason why ANYONE would do this. But similar situations like this happen all the time. After speaking with some anonymous trollers, we have a general, but blurry idea of why this happens. Our first troller, who we’ll call them Troll 1, spoke of their reasoning. They do it for the simple reason that, “It’s fun to make people mad.”
They explained how when they can successfully get a rise out of you, they have succeeded. As if it’s a challenge. However, when asked about the guilt afterwards, if there's any, they said that they actually feel it. They are left with a guilty conscience after the deed. Now of course one would think, “So why do it??” But they explained that it depends on the situation. They are someone who only tolls if provoked, as in things like chats or gaming. They troll when they’re trying to retaliate to someone expressing negative feelings towards them FIRST. Their guilt only lies within situations that contain someone they care about, when they know they went too far. When phrased like that, their trolling seems more reasonable. On the other hand… Troll 2.
Troll 1 and 2 difference
Troll 2 explained that his reason is quite different. When asked why it is that he trolls, he explained “Because I like seeing others upset”.
Now this troll says that there isn’t really a line that he won’t cross. For Troll 1, they draw the line at dead people, but not Troll 2. Anything is up for grabs. Troll 2 explained to us that he doesn’t feel guilt simply because there are no repercussions. This is the reasoning behind most trolls. They’re not getting something physical out of it, they just actually enjoy making someone angry.
Trolling is a problem that will most likely never go away. Especially since Covid has made just about everything virtual, it’s everywhere you go. What we’ve learned from our trollers still won’t stop it. There’s simply too much of the internet. There’s no point in actually trying to fight everyone on the internet.
Even Ramirrah explains how she doesn’t usually stand up. She knows that since nothing can actually be done, there’s no point in her arguing with them and giving them what they want, anger. However, this was different. After everything that has happened in 2020, this to her was the school trying to give the students a sense of normality, a sense of realness to this digital world, as it would have been if we were actually in school. Since it’s digital, the making of the presentation made it even harder. She makes the point that since it’s the first digital parade they have ever done, you would think it would be something memorable to the school, something they’ll remember fondly.
“Instead, people had to bash on it, for no reason at all”, she states.
Everyone’s answer to why they troll is different. The victims however, see them all the same.