48. Is Trolling Anti-Geek? | THUNK
Channel: THUNK
Date: 08/10/2014

Is it possible that the act of trolling, by any definition, is fundamentally corrosive to geeks?

-Links for the Curious-

"Internet Ranting & the Myth of Catharsis," a great summary of many papers with evidence that trolling just makes trolling victims more prone to anger - http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unique-everybody-else/201303/internet-ranting-and-the-myth-catharsis

"Anger on the internet: the perceived value of rant-sites," by Martin RC et. al., handily debunking the idea that a little online ranting will get anger out of your system - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23249241

"Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding," by Brad J. Bushman. tl;dr: feed. - http://psp.sagepub.com/content/28/6/724.abstract

An example of trolling (or maybe not...the inability to distinguish is essential) - http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4487359434?page=1