There is a distinct difference between a troll and a cyber bully and the motivations behind why each of those types of people perpetuates digital harassment. A cyberbully is someone who has, typically, zeroed in on a target, often someone they know offline, and will repeatedly harass that one person. A troll on the other [...]
In previous posts, we've discussed types of trolling behavior and talked to someone who has experienced trolling. But what purpose does trolling serve? Why might someone engage in trolling behavior? This comic from Everyday Feminism is a great place to start: In this comic, trolls attempt to protect themselves from a perceived threat to their [...]
It didn't end well for anyone. But let's back up. Leslie Jones is a comedian, SNL star, and Twitter-commentator extraordinaire. But her relationship with Twitter has not always been an easy one. When Jones was promoting her then-upcoming movie all-female remake of the 1984 classic Ghostbusters, Jones began to receive highly racist and sexist backlash, egged [...]
A few months back, I began meticulously documenting the unsolicited messages I receive across all three of my social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For sure, some of these messages are more innocuous than others, but none of that changes the fact that these are 100% unsolicited. I am not entitled to anyone's time. I [...]
As part of my research on online harassment, I was lucky enough to interview an incredible woman, Zoey, about her experience with this topic. We spoke for nearly an hour about all of the ways that online harassment has affected us. As the full transcript was nearly 10,000 words (it was an hour long conversation, [...]
What is trolling anyways? Or cyber harassment anyways? Or online harassment? Are these all terms for the same thing? Or perhaps it's a 'know it when you see it' phenomenon? The term trolling was first coined by a woman named Whitney Phillips, an internet scholar, way back in the 1990s when the internet was still [...]
Why: Examining hashtags that have commonly been used to perpetuate misogynistic sentiment on various social media platforms in order to better understand the people I am studying. Where: Twitter What: I will start by saying I hated doing this fieldwork. I knew I would be uncomfortable going into it, as there is no way to look [...]
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a woman on the internet nowadays? With trolls, bots, and ‘alt’ political party members, it can sometimes feel like a miracle that women choose to be on social media at all. Why do they stay? Why do they leave? What is it actually like to be [...]
