What is a YouTube Troll?
The infamous troll. We all get them, at least if you upload videos to YouTube, or any video-sharing site.
In fact, trolls exist everywhere online, on websites, blogs, videos, and much more! So what is a troll, exactly? Where do they come from, and why are they called a “troll”?
Early on, before the ‘new age’ of trolls, trolls served a purpose to get rid of “newbies” (people new to the internet, or a certain aspect of the internet). Trolls would post comments on websites, blogs, and videos that only the ‘insiders’ would know about or understand, so when a newbie would respond to them asking what they mean, the trolls would let them know that they were in fact a newbie, and that they didn’t belong (or shouldn’t be commenting).
However, over years of this type of trolling, the new age of internet users have formed the word “troll” into a new definition….
Now, there is no one true definition of a YouTube troll. Although, because of how wide this term has spread, many will define a troll or “trolling” to be any person that comments or leaves their response to a video that negatively effects the community, or provokes the emotions of others in a negative way.
Here’s an example:
Someone makes a video, and somewhere in that video they almost get hit by a car, so they make the sign of the cross and say “Thank God”. Now, most people watching the video would comment/respond by saying something like “Be careful!” or “Glad you didn’t get hit by a car!”.
But a troll would think differently. A troll would leave a comment like this:
“What do you mean ‘thank god’, huh? There is no god, god doesn’t exist! But you’re too stupid to understand that! Try making the sign of the cross again, I hope you get distracted and another car hits you!”
See what I mean?
Now that this “troll” made this comment, more and more people will talk about religion, and that the person isn’t stupid, and god exists, some will say he/she doesn’t exist. But you get the picture – Trolls try to put their 2 cents in, good or bad (usually bad), to make other people react (usually angry).
Trolls hurt the community, there’s no doubt about it. However, over time, it has been much easier to identify these trolls, so most people will just laugh at them or respond by saying “Troll!” or “You be trollin’!”
I respond by saying ” you be trollin’ “. And although this term could have been said or used before I found out about it, I will tell you that I found out about this saying from Ray William Johnson, a YouTube video maker – he makes videos on the channel’s “RayWilliamJohnson“, which is his ‘=3′ show, as well as “BreakingNYC“, which is himself vlogging/videoing his life in New York City.
He also designed a T-Shirt for =3 called “You be trollin’ “, and is/was sold in Hot Topic stores all over. He also has other T-shirts he sells, but his Troll shirt is definitely a big hit. I mean hey, at the end of his BreakingNYC videos, he always finishes by saying “Keep on trollin’ “.
So if you are a troll, I guess you can keep on trollin’, because eventually, every single internet user will know about these trolls, and will soon just ignore everything you say. And if you aren’t a troll, you seriously just have to learn to ignore them. By responding to them, you are letting them win. By ignoring them, they will feel as if what they say doesn’t matter to anyone, and will just eventually get bored.
Feel free to leave a comment, what do you think about these trolls? Have you seen the work of trolls? And finally, how did you deal with these trolls?
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