why do people conflate trolling with bullying?

[Caldari Ghost]

I always thought trolling was just being a prankster but people always talk about it as if it's just another word for bullying. Was it always this way or is it another example of language being treated lazily and people just turning words into thoughtless buzzwords that get confused for something it isn't?

[Fajita Jim]

Because both are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, not quite sophisticated enough to be ♥♥♥♥♥.

[Caldari Ghost]

Fajita Jim původně napsal:

Because both are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, not quite sophisticated enough to be ♥♥♥♥♥.

But being a bully is intending to harm someone, being a prankster just means having a sense of humor. When I get pranked I don't think the person doing it is mean, I find it funny too.

Honestly I find being so quick to label someone an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as actually being mean in itself.

[Caldari Ghost]

Fajita Jim původně napsal:

Because both are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, not quite sophisticated enough to be ♥♥♥♥♥.

The way this is worded points to an acknowledged difference between a troll and a bully in the perspective of someone who still sees a troll as being "bad" like a bully. What is it? Because the way people describe trolling now is basically just exactly what a bully does.

[Teksura]

Trolling is a broad term which includes both bad faith bullying as well as just messing around with someone in good fun.

If I am trolling my best friend by leading him along for some joke, that's the definition you're familiar with.

But if I am trolling a community to rile people up, get them upset, and laugh at them for how much they got upset by words on the internet, that's the other definition.


Like most words which have multiple definitions, you can typically figure out which definition someone means by using context clues.

[Fajita Jim]

Caldari Ghost původně napsal:

Fajita Jim původně napsal:

Because both are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, not quite sophisticated enough to be ♥♥♥♥♥.

But being a bully is intending to harm someone, being a prankster just means having a sense of humor. When I get pranked I don't think the person doing it is mean, I find it funny too.

Honestly I find being so quick to label someone an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as actually being mean in itself.

In both cases, consent is removed from the victim.

[Caldari Ghost]

Teksura původně napsal:

Trolling is a broad term which includes both bad faith bullying as well as just messing around with someone in good fun.

If I am trolling my best friend by leading him along for some joke, that's the definition you're familiar with.

But if I am trolling a community to rile people up, get them upset, and laugh at them for how much they got upset by words on the internet, that's the other definition.

Thanks. I tried to look this up myself but Google is basically useless now.

[Stop Having Kids]

The lefties are the ones who began conflating both terms. This is why we can no longer have fun in OT, they will cry about bullying no matter what.

[Caldari Ghost]

Fajita Jim původně napsal:

Caldari Ghost původně napsal:

But being a bully is intending to harm someone, being a prankster just means having a sense of humor. When I get pranked I don't think the person doing it is mean, I find it funny too.

Honestly I find being so quick to label someone an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as actually being mean in itself.

In both cases, consent is removed from the victim.

So this is something that is one of those things you restrict to people you are familiar with and that's it? Because my family is like that to each other all the time and we are very close but people in other place try to treat me as and accuse me of being from an upbringing that is so bad it's like a parodied stereotype even though it's the exact opposite of reality.

[MinionJoe]

Stop Having Kids původně napsal:

The lefties are the ones who began conflating both terms. This is why we can no longer have fun in OT, they will cry about bullying no matter what.

Probably the same group that conflated "progressive" with "liberal".

[Caldari Ghost]

Stop Having Kids původně napsal:

The lefties are the ones who began conflating both terms. This is why we can no longer have fun in OT, they will cry about bullying no matter what.

That's what I was thinking. It's a more masculine form of humor that admittedly requires an element of stoicism and strong self esteem on the part of the person being trolled/pranked and expecting they wont get personally hurt by it. So doing it to someone is a roundabout way of showing respect for them too. At least it used to be.

[Fajita Jim]

Caldari Ghost původně napsal:

Because my family is like that

Okay, and? So everyone else should just start accepting whatever your family finds right?

lol

[Caldari Ghost]

Fajita Jim původně napsal:

Caldari Ghost původně napsal:

Because my family is like that

Okay, and? So everyone else should just start accepting whatever your family finds right?

lol

I don't think you read my post.

[skOsH♥]

I think people can always think another is trolling them when they might not be aware. There's so many different types of trolling apparently, I didn't know. But I never liked the s---talking someone or giving them crap over and over no matter what

I mean that would be like a twitch chat but if everything was fully typed out. Then again, it can be pretty funny to see someone get trolled, but I've seen it a few times I got tired of seeing it

It's really funny to see some really well known twitch person get trolled since they conditioned themselves for those responses, but also they do probably have stressful lives despite it looking easy, it's almost like a blooper reel being watched immediately after filming.

Edit: recent example that I still thought was funny, mostly because I hadn't seen thr gameplay footage at all, was seeing Asmon get trolled playing The Stanley Parable Deluxe

[Teksura]

Stop Having Kids původně napsal:

The lefties are the ones who began conflating both terms. This is why we can no longer have fun in OT, they will cry about bullying no matter what.

In my experience, this has less to do with political leaning and more to do with the natural way languages develop. When new words or new uses for words start to emerge, there is often a few varied as different groups start to use it differently.

A good example is the word "Hacker". When this term was first coined, it simply meant what we'd call a "Coder". It was just someone hacking away at their keyboard. There was nothing malicious about it. A malicious hacker would be called a "cracker". And while people in the know within early computer terminology understood the distinction, most people didn't. And this got worse when entertainment media started using the word Hacker to refer to a malicious individual who uses their computer skills to break into systems. So now you have two groups using the same word differently; and eventually the larger group just wins out.

[kbiz]

Caldari Ghost původně napsal:

It's a more masculine form of humor that admittedly requires an element of stoicism and strong self esteem on the part of the person being trolled/pranked and expecting they wont get personally hurt by it.

Yes, and insult should bounce off you like a b-b off the steel hull of a mighty battleship.

You can't give offense, you can only take offense.

But yeah, I look for people who can take a barb - cuz it's fun to banter.