mapping the relationship between online trolling and mainstream culture The information society series
237 pages
English language
Published April 16, 2015
Internet trolls live to upset as many people as possible, using all the technical and psychological tools at their disposal. They gleefully whip the media into a frenzy over a fake teen drug crisis; they post offensive messages on Facebook memorial pages, traumatizing grief-stricken friends and family; they use unabashedly racist language and images. They take pleasure in ruining a complete stranger's day and find amusement in their victim's anguish. In short, trolling is the obstacle to a kinder, gentler Internet. To quote a famous Internet meme, trolling is why we can't have nice things online. Or at least that's what we have been led to believe. In this provocative book, Whitney Phillips argues that trolling, widely condemned as obscene and deviant, actually fits comfortably within the contemporary media landscape. Trolling may be obscene, but, Phillips argues, it isn't all that deviant. Trolls' actions are born of and fueled by …
Internet trolls live to upset as many people as possible, using all the technical and psychological tools at their disposal. They gleefully whip the media into a frenzy over a fake teen drug crisis; they post offensive messages on Facebook memorial pages, traumatizing grief-stricken friends and family; they use unabashedly racist language and images. They take pleasure in ruining a complete stranger's day and find amusement in their victim's anguish. In short, trolling is the obstacle to a kinder, gentler Internet. To quote a famous Internet meme, trolling is why we can't have nice things online. Or at least that's what we have been led to believe. In this provocative book, Whitney Phillips argues that trolling, widely condemned as obscene and deviant, actually fits comfortably within the contemporary media landscape. Trolling may be obscene, but, Phillips argues, it isn't all that deviant. Trolls' actions are born of and fueled by culturally sanctioned impulses―which are just as damaging as the trolls' most disruptive behaviors.
Phillips describes, for example, the relationship between trolling and sensationalist corporate media―pointing out that for trolls, exploitation is a leisure activity; for media, it's a business strategy. She shows how trolls, “the grimacing poster children for a socially networked world,” align with social media. And she documents how trolls, in addition to parroting media tropes, also offer a grotesque pantomime of dominant cultural tropes, including gendered notions of dominance and success and an ideology of entitlement. We don't just have a trolling problem, Phillips argues; we have a culture problem. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things isn't only about trolls; it's about a culture in which trolls thrive.
2 stars. Could be a solid 2.5, almost 3, but it contains this sentence:
"In one episode, heroes Vegeta and Nappa prepare to fight a villain named Goku."
Way to go.
An ethnography of trolls - narrowly defined as people who play elaborate games for the lulz by practicing a kind of nihilistic absurdism. The point of these acts is to win by being anarchically disruptive. The author argues that this method of undoing cultural expectations reveals them, but also is in large part created by them and dependent on them. Her account covers the heydey of trolling and its co-optation over time as the subcultural practice of trolling becomes merely a widespread social practice that is commercialized, to the dismay of old-school trolls. It also begins to appeal to people with aims other than lulz. The widespread use of the shocking, misogynistic, racist, and generally taboo-breaking discourse engaged in by the original trolls can't be stopped by showering it with shocked attention (that's a win) or by leaving the field (that's a win, too). Though these trolls can be trolled …
An ethnography of trolls - narrowly defined as people who play elaborate games for the lulz by practicing a kind of nihilistic absurdism. The point of these acts is to win by being anarchically disruptive. The author argues that this method of undoing cultural expectations reveals them, but also is in large part created by them and dependent on them. Her account covers the heydey of trolling and its co-optation over time as the subcultural practice of trolling becomes merely a widespread social practice that is commercialized, to the dismay of old-school trolls. It also begins to appeal to people with aims other than lulz. The widespread use of the shocking, misogynistic, racist, and generally taboo-breaking discourse engaged in by the original trolls can't be stopped by showering it with shocked attention (that's a win) or by leaving the field (that's a win, too). Though these trolls can be trolled (and may lose in the process) the question then is whether you're dismantling the trolls house with his own tools. Altogether a fascinating read to join ethnographies by Biella Coleman and Alice Marwick.
