Did you know that boredom is the main cause of trolling on social media sites?

That is the result of a study carried out by Dr. Claire Hardraker of the Lancaster University´s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. However, probably we don´t even need a whole study for that since our own common sense might lead us to the same idea.

Their research reveals that most who engage in the practice - bombarding other community members with insults and threats - do so simply to trigger outrage for their own amusement. 

Then these people do actually have an amusement problem?

The Tricky Trap of Boredom

Since I was born I can´t even remember one single day that I felt bored. 

Probably it´s an educational issue. From the very beginning I was shown how to entertain myself at any time. From later conversations with my mom I know that she was especially caring about the natural development of my creativity, imagination and independency. 

I didn´t need much to build a colorful world around me.

Have these people who only find amusement in attacking others never learned how to entertain themselves? 

"An incredible amount of time and strategy can be involved in trolling, as my research into the techniques they use highlights" stated Dr. Hardraker. 

It´s Damaging The Content´s Value

Negativity and negative people are part of our lives. 

That´s also something I´ve been told right from the start, and it helped me to understand the world, find my place in it and don´t get annoyed by hate, envy or other sicknesses. 

Negative impulses aren´t threatening until they don´t take an eco-system out of balance.

As long as trolling is practiced by a clear minority, a community is able to persist without any limitation. However, when these single activities start to become a movement, a social environment can suffer considerable declines in quality.

Dr. Hardraker resumed: "The time-wasting noise of one troll-post is relatively easily ignored, but the noise of hundreds of replies to the troll-post, and complaints about those replies, can entirely drown out the worthwhile content." 

It´s not only the value of content that suffers, it´s especially their creators who do.

The practice of trolling has become a widespread concern in recent years with people, often under the veil of anonymity, deliberately provoking others in social networks.

I often ask myself how these people might behave when we were all talking face to face? Would they take off their masks? Or would they be as evil as their avatars?

Now regarding steemit there might be two theories: either many bored people have joined the platform during the past months, or a considerable amount of already existing members have become bored in the meantime. 

No matter where they come from or where they are going, they are poisoning the ambient, impacting on content´s quality, annoying the community and - in the long term - damaging the whole brand.

A few weeks ago I needed to leave one of steemit´s chat rooms for that reason, a place that is actually designed for social interaction, mutual support and common amusement.
I could have stayed facing the absurdity, but that´s somehow not my way of dealing with these people. 

A friend of mine used to say: they don´t even deserve to be ignored. 

Everybody has to find their own way of dealing with it. 

Some might say goodbye and leave, others might try to fight back in the same way they are attacked and those who have some energy left would probably intend to repress it with positivity. 

To be honest I am kind of tired of it right now. I´ve been trying to spread love during weeks but that was like the famous drop in the ocean.

So I favor the real ocean over the virtual one right now. Surfers only attack other surfers when they steal their waves - and that´s an understandable reason :) The rest of the time we enjoy life together.

To the ones that find amusement in trolling: unplug your devices from time to time, do some sports instead, get your tired buddies out of that smokey cave, breath some oxygen, fill your lungs with energy and do something really entertaining. Life is so much more!

Best of luck ❤️

Marly - 

Picture sources: title image: crosswalk.com; quotes: pinterest.com.