It's Up to Us

          So far in this unit, we have read two articles: “Web Trolls Winning as Incivility Increases” and “What Happened When I Confronted My Cruelest Troll.” Both differ from the other in several ways but they both discussed the issue of internet trolling. Manjoo’s article was more informative as he cited research and gave specific examples, however, West’s was more personal and took my emotions on a roller coaster ride. I have honestly never had any experiences with a troll nor do I ever wish to. Before this unit, I had a vague understanding of what they really are and often associated the word with those weird creatures that have crazy hair. I do remember talking about trolls in one of my classes last year though. We discussed the bad side to online anonymity as it often gets abused and provides an easy way to target others from the comfort of their own home. Cyber-bullying, trolling, full-blown harassment, these are all real problems society is suffering from today, and it’s beyond sad just how many people are affected by this. I mean, it’s upsetting to see what the world has come to, but then again, there have always been bullies all throughout history so I guess history does repeat itself?

Anyway, reading West’s article got me really upset in the beginning. I hated reading about the things she gets told on a daily basis and the constant torture she’s always enduring. I understand that she chose that job and that she should just accept all the consequences that come with it, but at the same time, we wouldn’t be having this problem if people learned to be decent human beings. I think that it is up to us, it’s up to our generation to try and fix this problem. We should go out and educate people on the effects of trolling and cyber-bullying, we should start telling kids from the get go to not hurt other people’s feelings. I think that a big problem we have is that we’re all lowkey self-centered and don’t value others quite as much as we really should. Like Manjoo pointed out, this isn’t simply just a war on trolling; we’re facing against racism, misogyny, and ableism – things that have been around forever. Now it’s up to us to fix this, it should be up to us to teach our kids right from wrong as well as train them to have thick skin.  

Once I read about her harasser and why he did what he did, I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. NO, I do not condone his actions nor do I see any way to justify them, but it allow us to hear about the other side. He said that he bullied her because he was unhappy with himself. What kind of excuse even is that? Since when is it okay to belittle and hurt others because you're unhappy with yourself? So many bullies are that way, they hurt others because they loathe themselves.  I honestly blame his parents for the way he is because perhaps they didn’t love him enough – or at least they probably didn’t show it, also they didn’t train him to be a stronger person. I believe that it’s the parents’ job make sure their kids grow up to be understanding, accepting, and compassionate. It’s the parents’ job to teach them respect and discipline. People need proper guidance and it's all the parents' job to provide that. Teach kids to be better and decrease the amounts of bullies by spreading love and positivity. That’s the only way I see things working out for us and the future generations. I know it’s not going to be in a long while, but we really should all vow to teach out kids better. So yeah, who’s with me?