Why "Online Trolling" is Not Always a Good Thing Unless...

So, I guess I have to admit, looks like I accidentally did some "online trolling" yesterday without realizing it. 😂 Or hey wait, I was the one being bashed online! 😐

I did it on two popular social media platforms: Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter it was on a global scale, on Facebook it's just a local thing.

Lemme tell you what happened. But first, to those who haven't read any of my previous posts, you might wanna start now just so you know what I usually write about and how I post and such. That's if you're really interested and have all the time in the world. 😄

But of course, my Steemit behavior and posts are sort of different than what I post and how I post outside Steemit. Different end result, platform and target. Yada yada yada.

Anyway, here's what happened.

You see my laptop "died" yesterday. Suddenly my decade old computer (not even sure if it's older or not) wasn't showing anything on screen but it still was booting up. (Technician confirmed it's "dead" but I'm thinking of getting a second opinion.) Of course now I only have my smartphone to do all my online stuff. Usually this would cause me frustration or anger to no end but somehow I didn't go through that.

I was initially like, "Oh, it's not working anymore... Okay..."

Perhaps my brain self destructed a little bit because of what happened, coupled with the fact that afterwards I was reading and posting stuff online hours and hours past bedtime, that I didn't realize I was probably posting online without thinking until... Poof! A certain kind of people got triggered. 😂

Upon realizing it, my sleepy brain and stubbornly refusing to sleep me came up with a How to Be an Online Troll satire post. Guess who thinks she's smart without sleep after her laptop died on her.

Anyway, before anything else, let me just say my post title should be, "Why people are afraid to point out what's wrong." Why? Because my Twitter and Facebook posts aren't meant to raise ire in anyone and yet some people just can't look at my two comments without spewing hate and insults. Perhaps it poked them by surprise. 😂

The Twitter Comment

So yesterday I was on Twitter... after I posted stuff on Facebook too. I got into an environmental activist mode for a bit on both platforms and I kinda got triggered by what I saw.

And then I posted stuff here too and elsewhere and then went to sleep. Apparently someone got triggered by my post. Surprise! 😂

The tweets have been deleted now, perhaps he realized his folly or he looked funny because I wasn't reacting the way he'd expect. The person was really angry (maybe) spouting words like, American, monkey, stupid, drag you to jail, illiterate and some such. 😂

Normally if it was the old me, I'd make patol (engage) and reply negatively but I guess I'm older and wiser and see things differently now so I was just laughing and "playing" at his responses. My last reply was a gif of "God loves you" because I figured if you can spew all that hate I guess you need help too.

He replied and said something I didn't really bother to remember as I was out checking for shops to fix my laptop. He's since deleted his tweets anyway so can't check anymore. I have screenshots though. 😂 The last one is not showing in my notifications anymore so I figured my gif reply made him delete all the nasty things he said. 🤔😄 Who knows.

I'm glad I've learned to deal better with online trolls because of my experience last year.

The Facebook Comment

This one, I won't post here because it's getting some attention. 😂 More than 30 people reacted on it, and the number of comments grew a bit more because hey it's the weekend and people have nothing better to do. Like come on, where are all the hate coming from? It's not like correcting grammar in Filipino should be a big issue. Or perhaps it's because it is so rare that people finally got triggered. 😂

So what happened? Well there's a shared link of a local showbiz article about a certain popular celebrity on the Facebook Page of a certain TV channel. The link headline was ok but the next sentence seemed weird to me.

Out of the novelty of seeing such a weirdly worded sentence, I just had to comment and ask about it. Aside from commenting on the grammar, I joked at the fact that the Filipino subject was removed from college that's why nowadays even a news website can make a mistake on using Filipino properly.

No I'm not a grammar Nazi. If you read my posts I'm sure you'll see several grammatical errors. If you point it out to me that's fine. I'm not perfect. But the question here is:

If you see grammatical errors in a major newspaper article and you have a big nationwide issue of national language subject removal in college, what would be your reaction?

If the article was posted online, would you be surprised at this seemingly glaring error? Would you publicly ask why it was published without anyone checking the grammar?

Apparently doing the latter here in the PH causes a lot of anger from... certain kinds of people. I did not even comment about the showbiz article itself, only asking abt the usage of certain words in it. "Abnormal" contraction in Filipino grammar can be a tricky thing to notice apparently.

I can't prove the grammar is wrong because I have forgotten all the balarila rules and I don't have any language book around. It's not like it's a common issue too. It's a rare combination of words that's why I noticed it. No I'm not an expert in Filipino that's why I pointed out the words for experts to check on it. Sad to say, no experts have posted anything scholarly about it. Only those who are neutral and those who are rude and angry at the world seem to be gainjng ground. 😆

Anyway, the negative comments didn't bother me at first but around 1 or 2 a.m. today I learned my comment is kinda blowing up in all sorts of ways. Two guys have decided to comment on one of my profile post. Well now I think I'm feeling threatened/concerned. I'm sure there aren't anyone who would reply on my "top/trending comment" saying they agree with it for fear of getting trolled too. Time to ask the experts eh? It's Sunday so I might have to wait until tomorrow to get a reply.

I turned off the notifications yesterday so I didn't see the negativity they were spewing until someone came to my Facebook profile. It just shows what kind of people they are anyway. Perhaps if I get a reply from the experts I will stick it to all of them if I am proven right, but then again it's better to gently point it out instead. I did have a follow up comment where I said I stand corrected if I was wrong but some people just like to ride the subject and jeer at other people. Oh well. So much for having the courage to ask questions and point out possible grammar errors. 😂 I guess my mistake is my comment was too blunt and straight to the point. 🤔

_{Related: Why people hurt/hate other people and what to do about it. Would be feeling better if more people know how to hate the message, not the messenger.}

Why People Are Afraid To Point Out What's Wrong or Could Possibly Be Incorrect

Which brings us to my last point. Afaik, most people in my country are afraid to say things online that might get them bashed even if they may be right. A comment related to a sensitive and burning national issue will of course trigger more than 10 people. But wait, am I one of the few who ccommented such online that people actually noticed it? 😂 I don't even think I should be writing about this but maybe because I felt threatened, it got to me. 😆

I mean hey, if the English language lessons were removed from Western colleges I'm not sure if you'd react negatively too. Oh but wait, the US, UK and Australia has never been a colony of another country with a different language afaik.

Maybe Canadians will be able to relate but I'm not so sure. 🤔

In context, there are plenty of Filipinos who are English Grammar Nazis but aren't even experts in Filipino grammar. Hey you can't blame us, we've been colonized by the US for... decades? (Heck pls check Philippine history for more info.) Even our national major newspapers are in English ffs, only tabloids are in Filipino and some have pictures of sexy women on it or "X-rated" stories inside. 🤢

In contrast, you'd rarely see any Filipino correcting anyone using the wrong Filipino grammar. It's like you're nitpicking and being an insufferable know-it-all if you do it. And yet most Filipinos love to point out when their fellowmen are using the wrong English grammar. Why?

1. Because it's a foreign language.
2. Correcting someone in English (outside of education or job training) mostly means you're smarter than others or you really care about the person and you don't want them to be embarrassed or corrected by other people.

If you remember my post from last year, I wrote an entry to a Steemit contest. Courage is one of the most important quality in a person. For those who haven't read it, I stated:

• Courage Makes You Say What Must Be Said
• Courage Makes You Do What Must Be Done


I also wrote, how to have courage:

1. Knowledge makes you braver.
2. Support from people will give you courage.
3. Faith gives people courage.

I'm not saying I have loads of courage. In the above situation, I can say I only have #3. My faith is the only thing that made me do what I did; maybe it's not even related. Plus the fact that I didn't have sleep when I wrote it. 😂 You know we better think first before we post anything online unless we're so sure of what we're going to post. 🤔🙄

What I'm saying is if you want to say something online that is contrary to what most people think then you better have loads of courage to withstand the negativity of people who will hit you again and again and again. I could very well delete it but I'm not too afraid of negative online words. They can go back to whoever is sending them it's not me who'll feel pain.

Until now the notification for that comment thread is still off and I deleted an insulting reply on my profile and blocked the one person who wrote it. Oh, I forgot there's a third guy who sent me a pm. Not gonna reply to that either. 😁 I've only reported two very insulting comments. Lastly, I edited my "trending" comment to say that a lot of people got triggered, peace to all and that we should remember God loves us all. 😄

Positivity puts an end to all the hate eventually. It may be cheesy but it's true, love is the answer. Since I edited the post only one person made an insulting comment. 😊 Prayer helps too.

And so as with everything, I'm sure any newer online replies full of insults will end. Same as any topic, people will move on to other interesting and more controversial things. I'm just happy to know some of my fellowmen still care about the right usage of Filipino grammar that it even makes them paint you as a know-it-all and insult you without filter online. 😂

Don't worry it's not only me who got bashed. Other people's comments got hateful replies from other people too. 😄

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So now do you know why accidental trolling is a bad thing? I hope you learned something from this post. Care to also share your online boo-boos? 😄

XOXO,
@artgirl

P. S. How to end hate and hurt? Read this. 😊

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