Trolled.

Once upon a time, trolls were mystical beings that lived under bridges, medalled with fair maddens and reeked havoc in dungeons. In 2013, a troll is defined as someone who posts a deliberately provocative message on social media with intentions of provoking an emotional response and causing disruption.

Earlier this year images circulated the internet of teen pop sensation Justin Bieber smoking a joint. It’s safe to say you could hear the cries of young girls all over the globe disgusted in Justin’s behavior through numerous statuses, tweets, photos, videos and forums. This was until a hashtag began trending after a website declared “Let’s start a cut yourself for Bieber campaign… see if we can get some little girls to cut themselves.”

Instantly girls began to post pictures on Facebook and Instagram of themselves with cuts tagging #cutforbieber. It seemed that fans were taking this seriously as they also posted messages “you stop using drugs and we’ll stop cutting” with an image of their bleeding arms attached. This incident displays that trolls intentions are not in any way appropriate and they have succeeded in provoking emotion in females.

It seems that woman are targeted by trolls more so then men. Charlotte Dawson is an example of a female who trolls got the better of. After being attacked online on twitter and being told to “kill yourself” Charlotte was admitted to hospital. Relentless and vicious messages posted by trolls are powerful as they have the ability to crush the individual and ultimately provoke them to an extent where they feel self harm is necessary.  Why should woman have to suffer and feel threatened when they post more so then men?

The ability to remain anonymous online is scary in the way in which it is what drives cyber bullying. This makes it easy for anyone to act like a hero behind their computer without suffering any consequences. Although the internet is an excellent resource and is cherished by society abusing the ability to post may have a detrimental affect in the years to come.

Welcome to the dark side.

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