The social media wisdom guide on dealing with internet trolls

Now our interactions have shifted from a private space to a public space. Especially if you are a social media fanatic you might be spending time daily posting, tweeting, uploading or publishing on any of the popular social media network. Your post may catch the eyes of not only your target audience but some social media trolls who only exist on the internet to start arguments, upset people and post inflammatory messages to provoke readers. I f you have been on social media for some time you might have already encountered such incidence when you were confronted by a troll. Following are some tips on dealing with the mood suckers of the internet world.

1 Ignore them

The trolls on the internet get a sense of importance by bashing others publicly. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to respond to them negatively as they are on a lookout for a duel. Your negative remark will only fuel their persistence in bringing you down on the internet. By ignoring them you will turn off their spotlight which they wished to get. Ignoring them will make them go away feeling foolish and desperate and you will have the last laugh.

2 Proactive response

If you think you will have to respond to them to clarify something then do not respond immediately. Take some time to cool off your emotions. Trolls anticipate an emotional response and that’s the reason they comment on the first place. After your anger subsidies give them a short and to the point response. You cannot win an argument with them based on sound logics or statistics. You should respond in a way that there is no room for further conversation. As the saying goes” kill them with kindness and bury them with a smile”

3 Block them

If you are dealing with a troll who is using profane language and posting hateful comments, the best thing will be to block them. Every social media site gives you the capability of blocking users who will not be able to see you on the network and you will also not see them as long as you have blocked them. You should be very well aware of how to block and report any user on the social media network that you are using. Ensure that you delete any of their post even if you don’t want to block them.

4 Upgrade settings

The social media networks also keep upgrading their privacy settings to provide more control to the users. You can easily keep your privacy setting to control what you want to share with whom. The popular social media network also allows you to turn off comment for any particular post. You can easily set boundaries through your settings which can safeguard you against trolls.

5 Don’t disclose information

It’s better not to disclose any private information on the public social network. If you are using public space like twitter you should rather use anonymous names for your twitter profile. You should also give minimal personal information on the social networks like you should not disclose your phone numbers, email ids and address. If you block some user on any one social network, they can find you on other networks so it’s better strategy to give minimum information on any social network.

When it comes to woman they are usually considered as a soft target by trolls. Some of the trolls use internet as a place to harass woman as that is the only place where they can get access to woman even without disclosing their identity. The best advice some of the woman who have had faced similar situation when it comes to dealing with internet scumbags is to either ignore to them or respond to them with full vigour. In certain cases it would be judicious to discontinue use of any such social media network where there is more number of trolls than genuine users.

(Writing by Vaishnavi Agrawal; Editing by Nicole Colvin and Howard kingston)