Excerpts By J. Carroll

What is an “Internet Troll,” — basically the Bitter Bettys who negatively comment on anything and everything posted on the Internet. The Westhollow Society, a local non-profit working to improve the Northwest Dallas area, has been a victim of it as well when posting about their efforts on Nextdoor, Facebook, etc.

It’s always the same negative people posting the same depressing dribble. A post about upcoming meetings? They hated it! An article on improving your neighborhood? “Boo! Hiss!” A post about a lost dog? They hate it.
Nextdoor,  and many other sites don’t allow just anyone to comment on their content. You have to log in to give them a piece of your mind. So the Internet Troll is a rare bird — a dodo bird, if you will. They have to read an article, hate it so much they dust off their username and password, log into the site, navigate their way back to the hated article, barf up their negativity and then press “enter.”

Most people who read an article or a post and have a not-so-positive review tend get on with their lives; however, the Internet Troll has no life to get on with. As the rest of us go to work, spend time with our significant others, family members, friends, and fill the rest of our day with extra curricular activities, the Internet troll has nothing better to do than spend their time negatively commenting on everything. It is their feeble attempt to have a voice, like trying to sing along to Mariah. Unfortunately, they use this rare opportunity to be heard to tear others down.

Internet Trolls tend to have dark personality traits and show signs of sadism, antisocial behavior, and psychopathy — but on the bright side, they excel at hoarding and are a hoot to have at funerals! You’ve seen the movie Mean Girls, right? Well, Internet Trolls are the “Mean Queens,” “The Ladies Who ‘Sent Back’ Lunch,” and “The Queen(s) of the Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t!”

Because of an overall sense of failure in their own lives, they resent anyone who they perceive to have achieved any kind of success. The troll feels slighted by life and can’t fathom how anyone could be given more than their fair share. It’s because of this sad mindset they offer up nothing and contribute even less to society besides spreading hate, like a cancer, on the World Wide Web and throughout the community.

A bottom feeder. A bench warmer. A wall flower. Rather than doing something productive themselves, the Internet Troll sits sedentary and safely behind their computer screen where they vomit up their useless thoughts, bullying anyone who is brave enough to step out of the wings and into the spotlight.
It was either Aristotle, Elbert Hubble or Punky Brewster who once said, “to avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” However, for creative people, “nothing” is not an option.  If you are choosing to participate in life and live without fear of failure or worse — fear of success, you are already living a better existence than the Internet troll.

Oh, and by the way, after I post this, I’ll be too busy living my life to have time to read all the mean-spirited, troll-inspired comments soon to be posted. Happy Holidays!