Have you ever heard of the word “troll"? If you haven't, well, you're not alone. What you may also not know is that we are being trolled from time to time on the Internet. We all need to understand what Trolling means and how it affects us.

Troll is an internet slang in an online community or discussion, to attempt to lure others into combative argument for purposes of personal entertainment and/or gratuitous disruption, it is a deliberate action to cause conflicting opinions among members of a forum (like this one) in a way that would make more people argue about what they think is right. The strength of Trolls lies in the fact that no one is actually right or wrong concerning the discussion, the person that initiated the troll (the 'trollist', as I like to call him) knows fully well that people have different opinions and he wants to bring these opinions together, in an argument.

What a 'trollist' stands to gain is varied,in this kind of forum, he could hit several likes, views, shares and mentions : He may even hit Front page for his efforts. In other forums, he may become suddenly popular and famous, giving him the recognition he has always craved for. If you take your time to observe posts on this forum, some of them are actually Trolls designed to gather people to argue over subjective topics (phone brands, fashion trends and then some). Unfortunately, we all can fall for trolls very easily, it's just a way of taking advantage of our weakness of always wanting to prove ourselves right.

On the upside, we can actually avoid being trolled! The first step to this is to actually identify which post is a troll and which is not, this can be tricky though, as a neutral post can suddenly turn to a troll if a user starts off an argument. It is then pertinent to avoid arguments altogether as you may never know who's benefitting from it, try as much as possible not to support or oppose an opinion : it might not worth it in the long run, and again, no one is actually right or wrong in an argument, we all just want to prove our points. If you think it's right, very well then, keep it to yourself. Keeping neutral profile in forums may not earn you fame, but it does show that you're a mature member who understands why arguments are not worth it.

Let's enjoy this forum, let's keep away from trolls!