Are You an Internet Troll?

I'm one of those Midwestern folks who grew up changing the channel by hand. You know, one of those people who could still correctly identify a rotary phone.

Yes, I've rolled with the high tech changes, but today's technology and terminology seem to change as fast as ever.

Today I was thumbing through our Twitter feed and learned a new word: Troll.

Actually it's an old word from my past, Troll!  It was a word I remembered from Mrs. Capps 2nd grade story time she would read to the class after recess while growing up in Lyman County, South Dakota. You know, the story about the evil troll hiding out under the bridge.

Today's students might come in from recess, the teacher prepping her class with a digital smart board, and you might hear something like, "Johnny, put down that smart phone for just a minute while I try to explain this to the class."

Twitter recently announce they are going to crack down on Internet Trolls. So, what's the story? What is an Internet Troll?

According to The Inquirer.net

Shreyas Doshi, director of product management at Twitter, cited the example of multiple users harassing a particular person or group of people as an occasion when account lockdown would be used.

So, how are they going to catch these Trolls? The Inquirer went on to say,

Twitter is also testing technology to help the firm identify suspected abusive tweets to limit their reach.

"This feature takes into account a wide range of signals and context that frequently correlates with abuse, including the age of the account itself, and the similarity of a tweet to other content that our safety team has in the past independently determined to be abusive," Doshi explained.

Translation of what this really means. Don't be a bully on Twitter. Don't harass people or threaten them. Otherwise you could will lose your digital platform access to Twitter. Yes, everybody is invisible on-line but the old second grade advice still comes into play. When it comes to Twitter use, or any on-line dialog, just be nice. In short, don't be A TROLL! 

There was no mention as to how long you would lose those privileges but if you are a Troll, you've been warned.

Now, is it time to go to lunch yet? I get to be the line leader today!