{"id":194,"date":"2012-01-25T15:03:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T20:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/?p=194"},"modified":"2012-01-29T01:25:12","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T06:25:12","slug":"why-internet-trolls-are-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/25\/why-internet-trolls-are-a-good-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Internet Trolls Are a Good Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u00a0occurred\u00a0to me recently that a lot of my time online is spent responding to the always dreaded Trolls<\/a>. They live on blogs, and hide in the shadows of news sites, and are forever present. \u00a0They always attempt to alter peoples views or change the subject of the conversation to suit their agenda. Trolls are also a teaching tool.<\/p>\n

After arguing with a troll<\/a> in a blog, for the better part of a day, something extremely interesting happened. Call it an inspirational flash or a realization, the trolls<\/a>, the sock puppets<\/a>, and the shills<\/a> are having the exact opposite effect they intend. They come from an age of one way communications. Where they broadcast to you, expect you to sit idly by, and assume you believe what you are being told.\u00a0Where they give you of their version of the facts, and do not want your\u00a0feedback. This isn’t the way the internet works.<\/p>\n

We live in an age where information that is fed to us, can be questioned, discussed, and\u00a0verified or discounted very quickly. We do not need to go to town hall meetings, write letters and wait two weeks for a response, or spend time in multiple libraries to find an answer. We Google<\/a> it, we use\u00a0social media with our friends<\/a>, we blog<\/a>, we chat<\/a> and text<\/a>, we walk away from lies and deceit, and eventually we end up with the truth. With our almost unlimited access to knowledge, people seem to be using Occam’s Razor<\/a>, on an instinctive level\u00a0to find the simplest answer. \u00a0The rate at which this happens has gone from weeks or months to hours.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On blogs and news sites, we get baited, and we respond. It is human nature to defend your position and your beliefs. What trolls do not understand is, with each response we post, things\u00a0become more clear and concise in our minds. Each post a troll makes teaches us to spot the\u00a0straw men<\/a>, ad hominem<\/a> attacks, and the\u00a0misdirection’s<\/a> more quickly. We watch other people respond to the misinformation and the trolling, and we learn. \u00a0In\u00a0essence the trolls<\/a> are teaching us how to spot those who lie, twist meanings, contradict themselves, and\u00a0attempt to misdirect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The internet is a very large place, with\u00a02 billion people<\/a>\u00a0online at this point, each one adds to the discussion. Each discussion teaches people. Each response to a troll makes people think things through. Internet trolls are a good thing. \u00a0We read their posts, we realize that what they are saying is not true or a distortion. We respond, and we learn. In the end their words do not convince us, they have the opposite effect.<\/p>\n

\u00a0also : mouseover the pictures, top to bottom, there is a second story.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u00a0occurred\u00a0to me recently that a lot of my time online is spent responding to the always dreaded Trolls. They live on blogs, and hide in the shadows of news sites, and are forever present. \u00a0They always attempt to alter peoples views or change the subject of the conversation to suit their agenda. Trolls are also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,29],"tags":[34,86],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sock-puppet","category-trolls","tag-sock-puppets","tag-trolls"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p29Kla-38","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":99,"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hephaestusproject.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}