While I haven't given trolls much thought because people who were on early IRC or Usenet, or predecessors in the BBS/fidonet scene (which pre-dates me) have a n

While I haven't given trolls much thought because people who were on early IRC or Usenet, or predecessors in the BBS/fidonet scene (which pre-dates me) have a natural immunity to trolls. However, perhaps it's because we still think the internet isn't real life, where for an entire young middle class, it in fact is. Nobody expected to live in a future where the bourgoisie and their aspirants live in a zoo of their own making, and that geeks would become their zookeepers. The trolling today looks like a revolt against this game that isn't a game by people who sense there is something wrong but act out within it instead of stepping back. Flinging poop instead of orchestrating an escape, or less dramatically, just putting down the zoo and going for a walk. As long as people can be shocked, there will be people to shock them. In this sense, trolls aren't a problem for social media at all because it needs them to help keep people engaged and disatracted to preserve the illusion that it's meaningful and real.