Trolls are imaginary creatures in Scandinavian folklore who are dim witted, live far from human company, and are generally unpleasant when encountered. In modern slang the word refers to individuals who make themselves disagreeable on social media by persistently responding to other people’s posts in negative ways, ranging from discourtesy to threats and intimidation. If you write for the medical press and try to maintain a social media presence it’s almost impossible to avoid trolls. Some topics are guaranteed to bring them out in battalions.
Depending on its scale and tone, being on the receiving end of trolling can be deeply distressing. Higher profile medical writers than me have had far more troubling experiences, in some cases having to involve the police to protect themselves from threats of violence and worse. At the less extreme end of the spectrum, being trolled still gives you an impression of some aspects of the human psyche that you might prefer not to know about but probably should.
One of these is that some people are “rage reactors.” A word, a phrase, or the mention of a particular subject will set them off on a stream of invective—even to the extent of construing what you’ve written as the opposite of what you actually said. Another feature is the lack of inhibition that’s allowed and even encouraged by social media: people will express their thoughts in insulting or menacing language that the vast majority of them wouldn’t remotely consider using if they met you socially.
Most people who troll use pseudonyms, but a surprising number not only post under their own name but may be professional colleagues of some standing who seem to lose their manners and moral compass once they hit the keyboard. Some are supported by followers who provide a seamier echo chamber for the same views and who may not be constrained by any professional regulation. Thus, a distinguished professor might send a disapproving comment in his own name (it nearly always seems to be men) but then endorse or forward further remarks by an entourage of supporters whose timelines turn out to offer an unappealing package of misogyny, racism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories.
An additional grey area includes ambiguous messages without overt hostility, suggesting that dialogue of some kind may be possible. In these cases I generally send one straightforward reply to test the waters, and occasionally this leads to a polite agreement to disagree on respectful terms or even to finding some common ground. Sadly, this is the exception rather than the rule.
Internet trolls don’t seem to increase the sum of human happiness any more than their Nordic predecessors. On the whole, I recommend the standard advice given to anyone being pursued by them: “Block, don’t bicker.”