Final Observations

Looking back, I’ve actually learned quite a few interesting things with the conclusion of this project.

First off, it seems that trolling took different forms across different social networks. On Instagram, a trolling comment would often have nothing to do with the picture being posted by the celebrity, and was more often than not just a cruel, generic insult. Reactions by fans on Instagram were almost instantaneous. Since anyone who follows that celebrity will see the comment in their newsfeed, there were always a few fans who were bound to answer back. In other words, no trolling comment on Instagram is left unanswered. Often times, a simple trolling comment could spark an entire Instagram war. The scary things about these fights is that the users have easy access to your photos. So what started off as “you suck for hating Miley” could quickly escalate into “you’re an ugly fat whale” and other hurtful personal insults.

When it came to Twitter, the trolling went a little bit differently. A troll would usually go about his or her business by replying something clever and/or derogatory to the celebrity’s latest tweet. Now, people would only see this troll’s tweet (assuming that they do not follow said troll) if they clicked on the celebrity’s tweet, so there were considerably less fan responses to these troll comments than we saw on Instagram. However, it is safe to say that someone, somewhere, answered every trolling tweet, considering it was offensive/inflammatory enough. Usually, once these conversations started, they didn’t end. It’s a lot more personal than Instagram in terms of contact, because you’re not just having a conversation with a random stranger in the comments section of a celebrity’s photo- you are directly contacting them, which is a bit scary if you think about. We also saw some vicious conversations on Twitter, so it is safe to assume that those are not reserved solely for Instagram. In both cases, we saw the line between trolling and cyber bullying crossed and it was not pretty. Something interesting I noticed were that the ‘fans’, who were all too quick to stick up for said celebrity, were the ones who crossed that line most of the time, rather than the trolls.

An observation I made about the fans were that Justin Bieber’s fans were usually the most extreme. That was something I knew going in to this project- after all, Bieber is known to have some pretty insane die-hards- but I didn’t realize what that meant until I witnessed it firsthand. These people were malicious and cruel, and I was actually appalled by some of the insulting things they were saying. When it came to other celebrities, fans’ reactions were not as extreme and over the top. I thought that was interesting, but that was something I could’ve predicted going into this project.

All in all, by studying this concept of trolling, I realized what powerful tools all these social media sites are. Yes, they have the power to connect us all, but they also have the power to bring people down, and can be extremely harmful when used the wrong way. That being said, I think that while trolling may be viewed as harmless and fun, a troll must realize what they are getting themselves into, and should set clear moral boundaries for themselves that they will not cross under any circumstances.