Writer, editor and author Natasha Stagg considers how the violent and melodramatic language used by internet trolls has spread from our screens into our everyday lives.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4568,10172,10897,3980],"tags":[10948,10949,5141,10946,10950,994,10945,2468,10947,10951,7405],"class_list":["post-69352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-film","category-opinion","category-tech","tag-call-out-culture","tag-chance-the-rapper","tag-donald-trump","tag-gaslighting","tag-ghosting","tag-internet","tag-irl","tag-language","tag-linguistics","tag-trolling","tag-viral"],"acf":{"main_category":4568,"legacy":false,"hero_title":"","subtitle":"Writer, editor and author Natasha Stagg considers how the violent and melodramatic language used by internet trolls has spread from our screens into our everyday lives","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":false,"width":"6","proportion":"natural"},"facebook_image":false,"related_articles":[66095,69074,68999],"next_article":[68999],"content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"10","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
As part of the generation who define stages of our lives as pre- and post-Internet (email, instant messaging, mobile, Google, social media), it\u2019s easy to imagine that the next shift in how we communicate linguistically will have a lot to do with the so-called post-Internet, post-truth era. Our awareness of native advertising (online ads customised to social media platforms), artificial intelligence and data mining has impacted trust levels in all forms of communication. In fact, digital and IRL subcultures are developing through ideas about the nature of \u2018truth\u2019 itself (see: Flat Earthers).<\/p>\n
To better understand concepts that are unwieldy or intangible, we implement metaphors. As linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argued in their seminal 1980 text \u201cMetaphors We Live By\u201d: \u201cOur ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.\u201d Evidence supporting this argument abounds. Take, for instance, the common associations between \u2018happy\u2019 and \u2018up\u2019, and \u2018sad\u2019 with \u2018down\u2019. In other words, most concepts with positive connotations are metaphorically described using \u2018up\u2019: \u2018spirits rising\u2019, \u2018high morale\u2019, \u2018climbing the corporate ladder\u2019, etc. Conversely, many negative concepts are metaphorically \u2018down\u2019: \u2018feeling low\u2019, \u2018down in the dumps\u2019, \u2018sinking fast\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"instagram","code":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bi9NDEwHKTZ\/?taken-by=bbcthree","settings":{"width":"12"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Linguistic metaphors are almost always arbitrarily chosen over other ideas related to the same intangible concepts. \u2018Happy\u2019 could have been \u2018expansive\u2019, like a smile, for example, while \u2018sad\u2019 could have been \u2018narrow\u2019. We stick to the rule of directional metaphor when it comes to most ideas of positivity and negativity, if only to simplify. But with every simplification of our language, new complexities emerge. Slang, abbreviations, and new uses for words develop with parallel trends. This is where metaphors in language are called to task: our understandings of them must withstand the elasticity and evolution of everyday communication.<\/p>\n
Early metaphors used in conjunction with the Internet were mostly inconsistent. We talked about it as \u2018water\u2019 to be \u2018surfed\u2019, with \u2018torrents\u2019 and \u2018streams\u2019; as a \u2018grid\u2019, \u2018web\u2019 or \u2018net\u2019; marked with \u2018sites\u2019; and as a \u2018building\u2019 with (chat) \u2018rooms\u2019, (message) \u2018boards\u2019 and \u2018walls\u2019 on which to \u2018post\u2019. We also compared it to \u2018windows\u2019, too. New uses for words are invented every year in terms of what we do on the Internet, and no one single metaphor seems to have become entirely pervasive so far. Lately, however, the vocabulary developed to describe new Internet-only behaviours seems to fear the Internet itself, likening it to a \u2018horror story\u2019 in which users \u2018troll\u2019, \u2018ghost\u2019 and go \u2018viral.\u2019<\/p>\n
Modes of vocabulary change faster than the metaphors we use to describe concepts. We absorb the content that we can see and are influenced by its language. Yet, while academic, political, and journalistic languages have historically shaped various forms of argumentation, the phrasing used in social media rants and comment sections has started to influence these spheres, too. And since language isn\u2019t a feedback loop, this inversion of influence has created a new vocabulary that\u2019s evolved along with demand for specificity.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"10","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
In the study of linguistics, it is considered dangerous to assume too much about the way words affect culture; despite this, it is also deemed normal to assume that culture affects words. For instance, we can assume that the newer definition of \u2018viral\u2019 was created in response to culture\u2019s disdain for said behaviour; but assuming that the chosen word itself might influence the way we treat said behaviour is a stretch. We can easily describe the spread of sensational content as \u2018virus-like\u2019, but that does not mean that we will next be researching a cure for viral media.<\/p>\n
This is generally the trajectory of these types of linguistic trends. But with the rise of trolling (which according to Google dictionary is listed as: \u2018troll verb 1. informal: make a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them\u2019) we have also witnessed the rise of the ultimate trolls, among them American President Donald Trump and his ever-shifting cabinet.<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s language in his speeches and on his Twitter account is outrageous, yet all too familiar: it\u2019s also used by teenagers berating peers anonymously in comment sections, and by celebrity superfans defending their idols. The linguistics of online trolling has trickled down into the lexicon of real life (like in political campaigns and reportage). An entirely new set of standards applies to messaging when placed in the context of immediate validation. Additionally, the chance of a public encounter with a stranger encourages sensational behaviour. Celebrities like Donald Trump use emphatic language to reach the lowest common denominator \u2013 the rule of the simpler the message, the easier it is to agree with \u2013 in the same way protest chants and hashtags do. Celebrity followers, on the other hand, such as Beyonce\u0301\u2019s notoriously defensive \u2018Beyhive\u2019 fans, use the same sort of tone in order to gain status and attract the attention of their celebrity icons. Both types of trolling have descended into violent threats, personal attacks and bigotry in the name of reach. If a topic proves controversial enough, after a wave of shaming comes a wave of defending, and so on, until the topic is trending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"instagram","code":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bk7r3mSApTv\/?hl=en&taken-by=realdonaldtrump","settings":{"width":"12"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
If, for visibility, all press is good press, a tornado of trolling is the best possible scenario. Although no publicity firms have admitted it, some commercials are themselves trolling. In March this year, a Heineken ad was pulled after Chance the Rapper called it out. In it, a cold beer slides past three people of colour and lands in front of a paler skinned woman, followed by the slogan \u201cSometimes, lighter is better\u201d. \u201cI think some companies are purposely putting out noticeably [sic] racist ads so they can get more views. And that shit is racist\/bogus so I guess I shouldn\u2019t help by posting about it. But I gotta just say tho. The \u2018sometimes lighter is better\u2019 Heineken commercial is terribly racist omg,\u201d tweeted Chance. Now, when searching the slogan on YouTube, dozens of videos that play the full ad come up, including news coverage and late-night talk show jokes. The topmost repost has over half a million views.<\/p>\n
With the naming of \u2018call-out culture\u2019 \u2013 essentially the trolling of the trolls \u2013 we\u2019ve become confused about who tells the truth, since neither trolling nor calling out match the forms of discourse that we have traditionally credited with this role (e.g. word of mouth, or those employed by the fourth estate and the academy). This piece of prose that you are currently reading doesn\u2019t have any special claim to truth, either. It\u2019s a think piece, or an op-ed, or a rant, depending on who you ask. Or maybe it\u2019s a work of fiction (have we now any need for fiction when nothing can be proven to be nonfiction?).<\/p>\n
We know that the newest forms of communication we use impact our lives \u2013 the way we argue or how patient we are with the response to it \u2013 but we also know that the language we use in order to adapt to new forms of technology must eventually impact our lives as well. The term \u2018ghosting\u2019 was developed in parallel to the culture of constant communication. Before we became instantly available to anyone with our contact information, it wasn\u2019t necessary to have a word denoting the idea of no longer communicating with someone. Now, ghosting is part of our dating culture, a key to understanding a certain type of relationship. Given how dating has changed since the advent of iMessage and WhatsApp, the term feels inseparable from this context.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
We remember a time before the terms \u2018cyber bullying\u2019 and \u2018gas lighting\u2019 affected our reactions to everyday occurrences, and a time before these reactions produced their own new phrases and philosophies. Streaming services have made \u2018binge watching\u2019 a thing, as opposed to something less risky-sounding. We describe our \u2018addictions\u2019 to new media in all seriousness, taking hiatuses from online availability. While a \u2018safe space\u2019 isn\u2019t necessarily offline, it is easier to imagine that most are. The nonchalance derived from a world of dating apps has perhaps created what we call a \u2018fuckboy\u2019 and \u2018rape culture.\u2019 Violent and melodramatic terminology is trending on social media, with abbreviations like \u2018kys\u2019 (\u2018kill yourself\u2019) replacing the popular troll, \u2018delete your account.\u2019<\/p>\n
Studies have shown that rates of depression in teens who do not remember a time before the Internet are skyrocketing. According to research published last year by Columbia University\u2019s Mailman School of Public Health and the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, between 2005 and 2015 in the US, rates of depression in children and teenagers aged 12-17 rose 12.7 percent. In addition, if we\u2019re reading the texts correctly, teens and tweens may have more social anxiety than any that came before them, or, as a parent of a 10-year-old told me, \u201ceither they\u2019re all suicidal or none of them are. Something\u2019s got to give.\u201d<\/p>\n