The Psychology of a Social Media TROLL

You've seen them. The social media comments that seem to come out of nowhere. They are filled with such hate you have to do a double take because you can't believe what your reading. You may assume the poster has a personal beef with the receiver or you are missing something because it's so personal. So disrespectful, so inappropriate.

You may have just sighted a not so elusive social media troll.  They are growing in number. They spend most of their day making personal attacks at celebrities and random people on social media.

I've always been really intrigued by what motivates people. WHAT they say isn't as important as what made them say it. I have several categories of trolls but what I've always found is their home life is really tough. It doesn't excuse at all the repulsive and repugnant attacks online but it can give you some insight into why they would dare to even hit send. Knowing the profile of a person like this makes me so much less offended. It makes what they say more of a cry for help than an insult as they intended. With a troll real life sucks, they feel out of control in their own life, they use that rage on social media. On social media they get the satisfaction of getting a reaction. Hurting others. Because they aren't getting it in real life. They project.

Knowing that just makes me feel sorry for them. I know when I see it, somethings really wrong with them. It might take me a second but I  am almost always dead on.

If you understand the person who's attacking you is helpless and feels no control in their real life it takes their power away and the pain is no longer yours it's theirs. You will immediately notice it's not personal. They don't feel angry or hate to you, it's to themselves. I will give you an example. It happened just today.

I was on twitter and there was a photo posted of Kanye West and his adorable little daughter.  Right under the photo there was a post that actually took my breath away.

It said two words.

"UGLY NIGGERS"  (I literally just cringed typing it.)

Without even thinking I posted it was offensive. They baited me and I bit. Nailed it. Just what they wanted. Damn it. I realized the moment it hit send. My emotional brain took over and my rational brain was delayed. That's what happens. They post things that the moment you read you react. Instinctively.

But after I realized I lost interest. Their power was gone.  What came next intrigued me. Not what she said but why.

She called the above poster a "one narcissistic little nigger fucker". I've honestly not seen the word so many times in one day. And these aren't kids. They are adults.

I wondered what's going on in her life. Her name is part of her twitter ID. SO I just googled her name. The search took me to another account she owned on Twitter. The name and photos were exact. I wasn't surprised with what I saw. She had a link to an online petition. In that petition it said she was fighting in court to regain custody of her son. She had been clean for several months and was taking domestic violence and anger management as well as parenting classes.

That really told me everything I needed to know about who she was and what motivated her trolling.

Her personal life is miserable.

She's got a substance abuse problem, she's lost her kid, most likely her reputation and the trust of many. She's a perfect troll.  It doesn't make what she says ok. She probably doesn't even mean the words she's saying to you. She just wants to hurt someone.

Remember that next time you are trolled. You don't even have to tell them why you are ignoring them and what they say doesn't bother you. The moment you realize they are tolling you just stole their power.  They move on or maybe they will get off the damned Internet and go work on their own problems. You're doing them a favor that way. Give them time to go make their lives better. When you get caught up you're helping them avoid the really issues in their sad lives.