Fu*% You Internet Trolls

Internet Troll Definition: (as from the Urban Dictionary: A person whose sole purpose in life is to seek out people to argue with on the internet over extremely trivial issues. Such arguments can happen on blogs, Facebook, Myspace and a host of others.
The best thing you can do to fight an internet troll is to not answer. Or report them.

“God, Jeromy won’t stop posting about Larry’s bad spelling in that conversation.”

I have been on this earth for 39 years and within the last 2 weeks I have come to the conclusion that the world sucks.  Not the whole world, but a fair chunk of it.  It’s not actually the world either – it’s the people in it.

2 weeks ago I made a comment on social media, which was my first mistake.  My comment pretty much said Australia is a great place to live because of how we have a great health system and we have access to Centrelink. What I said was positive and in no way directing it at any sort of people. Now, apparently saying that makes me a racist.  I shit you not.  I got slammed by 3 ‘girls’ – Trolls. Then, my comment and my Facebook profile got shared to a Bad Girls Advice page – one of the Trolls thought they would let me know, how kind of her right?  Not.  Next thing my phone is going nuts with notifications on my business Facebook business page.  Call me naïve, but I have NEVER ‘stalked’ someone’s Facebook profile to the point where I found their business page (from a shared post on a private profile) Then write (I quote) “Don’t support this business – this woman is a racist” in the review section of the business page.  They then find more public posts from TWO years ago and comment on those.  This happened about 4 times.

4 Trolls, 4 bitches.  I was legitimately shitting myself; I was shaking and angry.  Lucky my bestie wasn’t busy that afternoon because I have never typed messages so fast in my life. I didn’t know what to do, so I screenshotted the comments.  Blocked and reported them to Facebook. I did that to each comment/post.  I deactivate my business Facebook pages for 2 weeks under the thinking that they will probably be trolling someone else in the next few hours. One Troll found me on Instagram.  It was then when I started to have a slight panic attack.  Seems a bit extreme doesn’t it? A panic attack because a few people wrote some unkind and untrue words on your business page. Until this happens you I don’t think you actually know how to feel and what to think.  I blocked and reported the Troll that found me on Instagram, these guys didn’t find me, as in my personal Instagram page – they found my business page.  Which mean a hell of a lot more to me than my personal page. 

FYI – there is NO way to deactivate your Instagram business page, even for 1 day, you can’t hide it or make it private either. Seems ridiculous when Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same people.  With the support of the bestie, Husband and my 2 teens I didn’t go on my Insta account for about 3 days until I calmed down about it all.

How dare they do this and WHY?  I did some reading about internet trolls. This is what I took from it.  When there is 1 troll, 99% of the time they have Troll friends, who are just like them and once they find someone they pounce.  You could be the Queen of England or Princess of the Ball and they will eat you alive.  They also have a fake profiles which is what these girls had. They also love attention of any kind.

 I didn’t even know what a Bad Girls Advice page was.  I have since educated myself and it’s pretty much a Facebook group that is full of ladies and they ask advice and from what I understand nothing is off limits and I mean NOTHING.  

Facebook shut down the group years ago but their are about 6 ‘sister groups’ that are just like Bad Girls Advice.  It’s mind boggling really.  Personally, I don’t have time to be on Facebook groups and talk about my sex life, or how my nanny is rooting my neighbour or if this is a good Kmart Hack or why my nipple has bumps and leaking.  Seriously.  Kudos if you like that sort of thing but I don’t have time for things like that nor do I like taking on other people’s problems.  Goodness know I have enough of my own.

I still have Get Lick’d Iceblocks and my cleaning business page on Facebook hidden.  I’m still a little uneasy about it all. I know I have blocked them and surely over 1 week later they have unfortunately moved on to someone else.   

My name is Karen, which within the last year has sucked. Have you seen all the Karen Memes on the internet?  At first I liked it as they were all light humour and not offensive, but within the last 6 months the name Karen has become someone that demands to speak to the manager because they have a complaint or Karen’s hate everything in the world.  Meaning they complain and aren’t happy with anything.  It’s really not nice – I have come to the conclusion that Karen is a rank, that’s why you see no babies named Karen.  I’ve actually changed my name on Facebook to Kazza just for all the smart arses.  I know I don’t have to, but it’s not worth the drama. 

I had a conversation about internet Trolls with my family at the dinner table last week.  I’m almost 40 years old and if I didn’t have the brain power or the confidence to not take shit from Trolls then it would have been a different story.  When kids are online and a Troll targets them I could not imagine how they would act.  What would they do, would they tell an adult or are they too afraid to tell their parents what they said because they might get in trouble?  What if a kid from school bully and trolls them online and they have to see each other each day during class?  That’s scary.  Teenagers are both arseholes and hormonal at the same time, mix that with the internet and a Teenage Troll is easy to become.  What’s not easy, as I found out as an adult is how to deal with them.  It’s easy to delete and block but when your brain isn’t fully grown it’s going to be harder for you to know what to do, and if you’re a teenager that has trouble talking to your parents for whatever reason, have no friends to talk anything through it’s going to be a zillion times harder to deal with than dealing with Trolls as an adult.  

Goggle these names Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett and Jessica Laney, both teenagers who took their  own lives due to cyberbullying and Trolls.  They were kids and they killed themselves because of other kids.   

By the time our kids have kids it will be worse?  Unless, can it get better?  Can it get better? 

 I am nervous about the idea of my Facebook page be reactivated.  I have to reactive it in a few days or Facebook will delete them.  Just the thought of someone that doesn’t even know me thinks they have the right to shame all my hard work and for what? 

I’m hoping the people that read my blog aren’t Trolls of any kind and if you are a Troll you need to check yourself because you make people’s lives bullshit. Yes, it’s easy to delete and block but it messes with your brain, your ability.  Of course, if my words and comments were offensive and hurtful then it wouldn’t of bothered me to much.  But it wasn’t it and if you see or come across a Karen Meme and it’s legit not funny, don’t share it to your Karen friends – they won’t like it.

Yes have an opinion.  Heck, isn’t that what social media is about?  But if you have an opinion that is different from your own, don’t be an arsehole and put words into the other persons mouth, this just makes you look like the fool.  Just be kind for fucks sake. Teach your kids to be kind.  It’s really not that hard.

The world already sucks but surely the minority is bigger than the majority.  Within the last month the world has changed.  I really hope it has changed for the better – for the sake of our children and our grandchildren. I am hoping in another 39 years the world is full of lollipops and rainbows and if it isn’t then I’m going to live off the grid and going to create my own community – pack your bags everyone is welcome.  *No, not a Cult, just a bunch of likeminded people that currently dislike the bullshit happening in the world and prefer not to engage in any of it and instead sit in sunshine, hang clothes on a Hills Hoist, grow our own vegies and animals, have a massive flower garden that provide honey for our bee hives and there’s a massive tree house for the kids and there’s a gym and an iceblock stand with the best tasting iceblocks in the land (oh wait I already have that)  Like the Woodford Folk Festival – but live like that forever. The only Trolls that are welcome are those weird little coloured ones that have rad hair and are always happy.