THE NORMALISATION OF TROLLING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24191/VoA.v19i2.11676Abstract
Trolling has become common among social media users. This study examines how university students perceive trolling culture on social media. Its primary goal is to ascertain whether trolling is a social media norm, while the secondary goal is to determine users’ typical responses when they are being trolled on social media. A quantitative research method was used in this study. Sixty students from a public university provided their responses through a Likert Scale survey. We analysed the data using descriptive analysis SPSS version 25. The results indicate that most respondents expressed their worries and concerns about the present culture of trolling, which is becoming increasingly prevalent on social media. This study also unearths the common responses among users when they were trolled on social media. Thus, this study provides insights into the seriousness of trolling culture on social media, especially among young adults like university students.
References
Andersen, I. V. (2021). Hostility online: Flaming, trolling, and the public debate. First Monday.
Biały, B. (2017). Social media—from social exchange to battlefield. The Cyber Defense Review, 2(2), 69-90.
Beyer, J. L. (2014). The emergence of a freedom of information movement: Anonymous, WikiLeaks, the Pirate Party, and Iceland. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(2), 141–154.
Case, C. J., & King, D. L. (2018). Internet Trolling Victimisation: An Empirical Examination of Incidence in Undergraduate Business Students. Research in Higher Education Journal, 34.
Cook, C., Schaafsma, J., & Antheunis, M. (2017). Under the bridge: An in-depth examination of online trolling in the gaming context. New Media & Society, 20(9), 3323–3340.
Coles, B. A., & West, M. (2016). Trolling the trolls: Online forum users constructions of the nature and properties of trolling. Computers in Human Behavior, 60, 233-244.
Duggan, M. (2017). Online Harassment 2017. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/07/11/online-harassment-2017/.
Dunlop, S. (2013, August 6). Girl’s suicide after website bullying. News24. https://www.news24.com/parent/teen_13-18/development/development_behaviour/Girls-suicide-after-website-bullying-20130806
Englander, E., Donnerstein, E., Kowalski, R., Lin, C. A., & Parti, K. (2017). Defining cyberbullying. Pediatrics, 140(Supplement_2), S148–S151.
Espiritu, S. M. C. (n.d.). Don’t Troll My Feelings: The Effects of Trolling Behavior towards Emotional Contagion. University of San Carlos.
Hejlová, D., Schneiderová, S., Klabíková Rábová, T., & Kulhánek, A. (2019). Analysis of presumed IQOS influencer marketing on Instagram in the Czech Republic in 2018–2019. Adiktologie, 19(1), 7-15.
Herring, S., Job-Sluder, K., Scheckler, R., & Barab, S. (2002). Searching for safety online: Managing” trolling” in a feminist forum. The Information Society, 18(5), 371–384.
Jeffrey, C., Peltier, C., & Vannest, K. (2020). The Effects of an Online Psychoeducational Workshop to Decrease Anxiety and Increase Empowerment in Victims of Trolling and Cyberbullying. Journal of Online Learning Research, 6(3), 265-296.
Jenaro, C., Flores, N., Vega, V., Cruz, M., Pérez, M. C., & Torres, V. A. (2018). Cyberbullying among adults with intellectual disabilities: Some preliminary data. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 72, 265-274.
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68.
Komac, G., & Cagiltay, K. (2019). An Overview of Trolling Behavior in Online Spaces and Gaming Context. 1st International Informatics and Software Engineering Conference: Innovative Technologies for Digital Transformation, IISEC 2019 - Proceedings, February 2020. https://doi.org/10.1109/UBMYK48245.2019.8965625
Lumsden, K., & Morgan, H. (2017). Media framing of trolling and online abuse: silencing strategies, symbolic violence, and victim blaming. Feminist Media Studies, 17(6), 926–940. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1316755
Luzón, M. J. (2011). ‘Interesting post, but I disagree’: Social presence and antisocial behaviour in academic weblogs. Applied Linguistics, 32(5), 517–540.
Mason, M. W. (2021). Sara Polak and Daniel Trottier (Eds.), Violence and Trolling on Social Media: History, Affect, and Effects of Online Vitriol. International Journal of Communication, 15, 4.
Maltby, J., Day, L., Hatcher, R. M., Tazzyman, S., Flowe, H. D., Palmer, E. J., ... & Cutts, K. (2016). Implicit theories of online trolling: Evidence that attention‐seeking conceptions are associated with increased psychological resilience. British Journal of Psychology, 107(3), 448-466.
March, E. (2020, September 16). New research shows trolls don’t just enjoy hurting others; they also feel good about themselves. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-trolls-dont-just-enjoy-hurting-others-they-also-feel-good-about-themselves-145931
March, E. (2022, May 13). The new social media (Anti-Trolling) Bill: Will it work? Federation University Newsroom. https://federation.edu.au/news/articles/the-new-social-media-anti-trolling-bill-will-it-work
McCosker, A. (2014). Trolling as provocation: YouTube’s agonistic publics. Convergence, 20(2), 201–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856513501413
Myers, C. A., & Cowie, H. (2017). Bullying at university: The social and legal contexts of cyberbullying among university students. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48(8), 1172-1182.
Olson, G. (2020). Love and hate online. Affective politics in the era of Trump. Violence and Trolling on Social Media: History, Affect, and Effects of Online Vitriol, 153-177.
Ortiz, S. M. (2020). Trolling as a collective form of harassment: An inductive study of how online users understand trolling. Social Media and Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120928512
Pearson, J. (2016, October 15). Scientists invented a tool to expose 4chan’s racist trolling campaigns’, Motherboard. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en/article/9a3g97/block-4chan-to-stop-the-alt-right-from-spreading-racist-memes-scientists-say
Rachamalla, A. (2021, May 10). Trolling and its impact on social media. End Now Foundation. https://www.endnowfoundation.org/trolling-and-its-impact-on-social-media/
Rainie, L., Anderson, J., & Albright, J. (2017, March 29). The future of free speech, trolls, anonymity and fake news online. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/03/29/the-future-of-free-speech-trolls-anonymity-and-fake-news-online/
Shachaf, P., & Hara, N. (2010). Beyond vandalism: Wikipedia trolls. Journal of Information Science, 36(3), 357–370.
Suciu, P. (2020, June 3). Trolls continue to be a problem on social media. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2020/06/04/trolls-continue-to-be-a-problem-on-social-media/?sh=5fc5ec633a89
Stangor, C., Jhangiani, R., Tarry, H., Hammond Tarry, B., & Victoria, B. C. (2022). Principles of Social Psychology-1st International H5P Edition. https://pressbooks.com
Swenson-Lepper, T., & Kerby, A. (2019). Cyberbullies, Trolls, and Stalkers: Students’ Perceptions of Ethical Issues in Social Media. Journal of Media Ethics: Exploring Questions of Media Morality, 34(2), 102–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/23736992.2019.1599721
Wilson, N. C., & Seigfried-Spellar, K. C. (2022). Cybervictimization, Social, and Financial Strains Influence Internet Trolling Behaviors: A General Strain Theory Perspective. Social Science Computer Review, 08944393211065868.
Zamri, N. A. K., Nasir, N. N. A. M., Hassim, M. N., Ramli, S. M., & Amin, F. M. (2022). Malaysian Onion Army and Othering: Radicalized Trolling Hunters on Twitter During Pandemic. 2nd International Conference on Social Science, Humanities, Education and Society Development (ICONS 2021), 153–164.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.







