How To Deal With Online Trolls and Haters!

(+1 you might want to hear out)

- Michiko Manalang

It may be a virtual world but, much like real life with all its good and bad, the online experience is also hounded by unnecessary hostility of strangers. We call them trolls—and sometimes they could be people close to you. Or, for all you know, you are one, too.

Two ever-burning questions we ask about this situation are “Why do they do it?” and “What do they get out of it?” Sadly, we can only speculate answers. The hard truth is that there is no clear way on how to best deal with these people, who you’ve probably already canned into a specific archetype: an unkempt slob living in their mother’s basement. However, there are different kinds of trolls whose motives might have nothing to do with one another. And this is lesson number one: making caricatures of the perceived enemy won’t help your cause.

Shouldn’t we just ignore them? That’s not a bad idea, and a lot of people would recommend it; but again, it’s not always the solution. The keyword here is “solution,” and that’s another lesson we’ve yet to learn—not every moment is a teachable one, but every moment is another potential step we can consciously take toward a kinder internet, and a kinder world in general.

So what can we do? It helps to first identify the kind of troll you’re dealing with, and to remember to be the bigger person if you can afford to. (Mind that some of these might overlap, and it’ll be up to your better judgment when the time comes.)

THE HATER IRL (IN REAL LIFE)