
Trolling is no longer just the act of acquiring delicious frutti di mare and Trolls are no longer brutes living under bridges demanding tributes. The term has gained a new meaning in the Internet, referring to both 'Trolls', people who haunt Internet messageboards in order to get their jollies from provoking forum members into exaggerated emotional responses, and 'trollin', the previously mentioned behavior.
Trollface, popular caricature image of a
Troll in an act of succesful provocation.
Prelevance: The act of trolling is generally more or less universal in the internet. While this sort of behavior would be regarded as borderline sociopathic in a real life setting, many people engage in it in an online one. Personally I do not believe that the environment itself exactly 'turns' people into troublemakers that they would not in other setting be, but that the internet simply provides ideal opportunity for it: Not only is concealing and falsifying your identity exceedingly simple, the environment of Internet also shields the perpetrator from both idenfication and even physical harm, which would be a very real possibility if such hijinks were attempted in another setting.
Entymology: The word trolling originates from the practice of fishing, and refers to the act of attracting or 'baiting' gullible users into the conversation [Free Online Dictionary]. This term assumably leads to the word 'Troll' being used to describe people who practice the said behavior. Since Troll refers to particularly unruly mythological creature as well [Kvideland, Reimund. Sehmsdorf, Henning K.] the word gains a fitting double meaning.
Source:
[Indiana University] "University Information Technology Services", fetched 24.01.2011
( http://kb.iu.edu/data/afhc.html )
References:
[Kvideland, Reimund. Sehmsdorf, Henning K.] "Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend." University of Minnesota Press. 2010.
[Free Online Dictionary] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trolling, fetched 24.01.2011
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