Why ‘Hate Trolls’ May Actually Be Good

Almost any hot topic post on Facebook becomes filled with hate trolls within minutes of being posted, but should we really spend so much energy fighting back?

Unless a facebook post is about cute animals, everyone has an opinion, and it seems like the whole internet just exists for people with meaningless opinions to have the ability to scream-type their usually unfounded thoughts at each other. Why? Because scream-thinking behind a computer or smartphone screen requires little commitment. You don’t need to know the other person, feel them, and for the most part, you risk no chance of running into them at the grocery store when you’re mostly feeling like a civilized human. But the internet, especially facebook, is an excellent place for people with semi-hidden pockets of rage to just let it all go. I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of times in recent weeks and months alone I’ve had people remind me they’d like to finish what Hitler started, why Jews like me should all be stabbed to death, etc., and I’ve seen similar comments on my friends’ #blacklivesmatter posts as well. Newsflash: being a good human is sort of all that matters.

Would they ever think of saying these things to my face? Probably not. The social risks would be too high, but they’d probably still think these things. No matter how respectfully I respond to them (or don’t), pockets of hate and rage simply won’t be squashed by anything other than exposure. There’s a lot of open debate about what kind of exposure– exposure in general? Exposure to light? Exposure to authorities? While on one hand there’s an immediate urge to copy/paste and show the world “Hey, look at this idiot jackass! Look how hate-filled he is…” there’s the common-sense realization that not everyone wants to see other people being less than great. It’s the rose-colored glasses of facebook: people just want to see puppies and get real-time information on the what the weather patterns may or may not be in their area. Fair enough. What people don’t seem to realize is that facebook is more and more becoming a robotic version of our most normal, and ancient human social selves. Nothing has changed, and hate trolls are nothing new.

So what exactly are hate trolls?

Hate trolls are the people you’ve likely never met who manage to make it onto your status, a celeb-shared link, or just about anything else. If you find yourself posting a photo of you and your best friend campaigning for a certain presidential candidate, don’t worry, hate trolls will find you as long as your profile is marked open. You don’t need to talk politics though– just consider having literally ANY thought on hotbed topics like the presidential race, down to bang-your-head-on-a-wall topics like gluten, Kardashians, hair trends, or whether or not macarons are still trendy and some hate trolls will make their way to you. But it’s not bad. In fact, it’s good.

How on Earth can hate trolls be positive? 

That’s a great question, and the truth is just in Facebook’s algorithm– nothing more, nothing less. The algorithm that decides what pops up in your newsfeed most prominently is very much dependent on user engagement, meaning the more people comment on your status, post, or share the more other people will see it. I recently posted a status on my personal facebook page telling people about an upcoming Shabbat dinner (that’s a Friday night family meal), which had nothing but positive vibes, but obviously posting something Jewish-related was bound to seriously piss some internet hate trolls off. How dare I be so outwardly supportive of something called The Shabbos Project— what was I thinking? How dare I ask my facebook friends to invite new friends to their own tables! I must be some kind of terrible, awful, baby-killing Jewish beast because within minutes the hate trolls were out posting photos of dead children they claimed were Palestinians my husband and myself must’ve brutalized (in between blog writing and real estate dealings in NYC, but, OK).

A portion of the comments thread on one of my recent posts.

I traded text messages and private facebook messages with several friends of mine, and a girl I work with about this. They were all shocked that if I responded at all it was basically with “everyone is welcome at my table if they’re willing to honor Shabbat!” Why wouldn’t I tell these haters about themselves? Why wouldn’t I block them or share just how vile they really are as humans? Because facebook will do it for me, and I can sit back being as friendly as I I feel like being.

When the trolls come out, they push my post a little higher in everyone else’s newsfeed. The whole post essentially gets forced into everyone else’s newsfeeds, too, and that’s where the onus is on us (if you’re reading this I’m lumping you into a group of humans just trying to do their best) to post things without hate rhetoric. At some point, by the logic of math and science and computers and all the beautiful algorithms the internet could ever handle, neutral and positive-minded facebook shares will be forced to win. Either people will respond with open intellect, curiosity, and emotion, or they’ll be presented with a choice: find respect for the poster, or the one leaving hate-filled comments. This algorithm does rely on majority metrics, though, so if millions of people are filled with hate… well, all the good people lose. Much life real life, it’s our obligation to choose respectful words on social media and let the haters expose themselves.

Essentially, post positive, honest things and embrace whatever comes your way.

If you hated this whole post (or just hate me) the only way you can win is with silence. If you leave comments here or on my corresponding facebook post, you’ll just force more people to read this. You do you.