blog 17 - revisions for Hypertext Essay Draft

This is still being actively edited - I have a lot of notes, and refrences to put in. I've pinned down an outline, and I'm still working on body text:

Thesis/"home" page: Trolling as we know it has evolved into (among other things) a method of social control, rendered more virulent by the depersonalization, anonymity, and sense of entitlement made possible with computer-mediated communication. Trolling, from the more common verbal barb-throwing to the graphically violent and threatening cyber attacks is an efficient way to censor certain dialogs/discourses (under the protection of free speech) and discourage certain politically "vulnerable" groups from use of digital technologies under the pretense of humor and pranking.



Node 1: Misogyny

One of the many examples of this effect is the treatment of some feminist or female-identified cyber "spaces" (forums, boards, blogs, etc) at the hands of trollers. The ethic of inclusiveness of many online spaces, especially feminist ones (as they require intense dialog) places them in a unique position in relation to misogynist trolling. Either they become seperatist/exclusive ("members only") or they develop, as many other boards and forums have, moderator policies and codes of commenting etiquette, as well as mechanisms for dealing with offenders. These actions of resistance may be coded as "attacks" on free speech of the trollers, attempts at censorship (Herring). A common tactic in misogyny, as with any prejudice, is to cast the group's resistance and protest as harmful to the disagreeing party's liberties, or as evidence that they are not deserving of the same rights to expression and development of their opinions and ideas.

Node 2: Deindividuation and CMC

-"Social psychologists have known for decades that if we reduce our sense of out own identity a process called deindividuation we are less likely to stick to social norms" (New Scientist article)

(loss of personal id on the part of the troller and minimization of personal id of the trolled has a distcinct parallel in the development of the us/them mentality that takes biases and prejudices from the private arena of opinion into the realm of verbal attack and even violence.)

(the idea of freedom of speech, so treasured in American culture easily lends itself to a sense of entitlement to expression at all costs, rather than a sense of privelige, which would perhaps modify the content of mode of a person's expression to fit better with broadly accepted social norms)

Computer mediated communication eliminates the social cues that govern in person communication from introduction to humor to disgreement, even intense disapproval. This is the nature of the media, but sets of cyber-social cues have evolved to bridge the gap between sheer text and human emotion (emoticons, mood labels, video/voice, etc).

Even written communication (source?) coudl be relied upon to maintain certian levels of civility in a broad sense, as the time gap between messages recieved and sent was fairly long. Exceptions did happen, but the speed with which internet communication takes places logically encourages more off the cuff responses, and the fetish of speed (look at a comcast ad!) underscores the devalued nature of contemplation and measured response.


Node 3: "collapsing into Babel" (Mal. article)

"pointless and eristic game" (Malwebolence article)

One of the most effective weapons at the troll's disposal is his/her ability to create chaos, to get the rest of the community to react emotionally, to cast aspersions on the legitimacy of their discourse and presence. The tendency of targets to emotionally respond to the troll complicates the division between victim culture and actual victimized people. Sadly, it is just as popular online to affect offense as it is to give it. The intensity of computer usage (see "A rape in cyberspace" as well as the deindividuation it can cause may shorten the fuse of a troll-ee's temper until they literally loose it, with no tangible gain except the troller's pleasure.

The idea of tolerance helps to counteract this knee-jerk and theatricality fostered in online interaction, but too much easily overflows into instutitional passivity.
****still adding here!****

Node 4: what now?

The responses to increased sophistication of trolling behaviors generally take the form of self-policing spaces. Comment policies, moderation policies and practices are based on the individual users' agreed desires to supervise discussion and handle transgressions. These have taken the place (largely) of monolithic institutions (eg legal system) that people would traditionally be ex[pected to turn to for recourse in matters of libel and harassment. (consider link to grassroots, activism, "Take back the night" etc)

examples to add:

-"Take back the blog", find more
-exception - Yale case
-boingboing's mod policy, portly dyke's blog policy

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final thoughts - i need to put in the quotes i picked, as well as continue to relate the feminism thing, use it as a recurring example.