I found an article by the New York Post about a bride getting ‘trolled’ on her wedding day. The video has over 100,000 likes on TikTok. A Utah bride hosted a workout class on her wedding day with her bridesmaids. She posted the video in March 2023, but she married her husband in July 2022. The bride, Kenndey Olson Hart, shared the video to display an activity she did on her special day. Instead of commentators congratulating her, they started to ‘troll’ her in the comments. The comments varied, from name-calling to comments and outwardly criticizing Hart. Many commenters felt differently than Hart did, and while the motives of the commenters are unclear, it looks like they were trying to bully and criticize Hart into agreeing with their point of view or driving her to take down the video.
When I typed in ‘troll’ in Google, under the ‘News’ section, this was one of the first articles to first pop up. The title has the word ‘trolled’ in it. However, in this case, I think the word troll acts more like a buzzword than an actual definition. No terms were explicitly explained in the article. A topic that is covered a lot in journalism classes is the use of buzzwords and clickbait titles. Writers want to grab the reader’s attention. With a dwindling attentiveness, authors will do almost anything to have their article read. I think this was what the New York Post was trying to do. However, the words ‘troll’ and ‘trolling’ have gotten overused to the point where people will consider any pushback from the public as trolling. In my opinion, the author labeled this incident as trolling because of how almost all the comments are either condemning the bride’s choice to work out on her wedding day by criticizing her appearance or bullying her for being from Utah. An example of criticizing her appearance is calling Hart an ‘almond mom.’ This is referencing moms, usually white women, who are super skinny because they don’t eat anything all day. Other comments are bullying her for being from Utah. An example of this is one commenter writing “What is in the Utah air?”
Last semester, I was once stopped from showing an article in a journalism course by my assigned class partner at the time because he thought the article, I was going to present was “a bad example of what we’ve been learning.” Well, yes, there are bad examples, however, bad examples are necessary to highlight the good examples and show the importance of the lesson at hand. I am well prepared and aware that my article may not be the best example of trolling, however, it does put into perspective the scholar’s definitions and opinions we’ve been studying in class. There’s no true bad example if it contributes to the learning experience.
Rachel Barbey describes trolling as ‘unclear,’ explaining that there are many different types of trolls. The internet wants to call every ‘disagreeable’ person, contradicting opinions, or an attention seeker on the internet a ‘troll.’ Barbey argues why these categories of people don’t fit the aggressive and abusive behavior of trolls we have known. There is no exact art for this business. None of the scholars we’ve been studying would classify this situation as trolling, however, scholars like Barney would have put it under consideration.
Michele Tepper’s original explanation of trolling described trolling to have a ‘gatekeeping’ aspect. In her explanation, she described trolling as a ‘method’ to implement subcultural standards and was used to prove group membership. What’s intriguing about Tepper’s definition of trolling is she describes trolling as a game played by those who know all the rules versus those who don’t. In the wedding video, for example, there is some part of a game being played, especially when people are making fun of Utah. However, it lacks the enforcement of community standards because there’s no community to ‘protect.’ Communities can easily be formed, but there’s no clear community in this example. It also lacks Tepper’s boundary maintenance because there are no boundaries to be maintained. There are very few identifiers that trolls could look out for to signify outsiders. Some may argue those who disagree with the negative comments could be outsiders, but it’s more likely to be classified as a disagreement.
Whitney Phillips sees the evolution and differences between trolls of the past and trolls in the modern era. Where modern-era trolling describes itself as trolling, the former doesn’t necessarily flag itself by names or behaviors. Phillips also cited that depending on the attitude towards trolling, the describer may define trolling as mean or abusive, while someone with a more ambivalent attitude may define it as ‘fishing.’ When most people encounter the word trolling, they assume that all trolls must be angry or violent. In the example, the commenter’s behavior would be described as more of a ‘fishing’ tactic because of the tameness of the actions. However, some may argue that the comments are mean-spirited. Trolls are supposed to incite paranoia and can arguably be one of the main points that Phillips is trying to make, and the lack of paranoia that the comments consist of does not qualify this example as ‘trolling.’ Philips does focus on ‘subcultural trolls’ of people who self-identify as trolls but do not identify with the trolling behavior in general. I do not think that the commenters on TikTok should self-identify at all with the word ‘troll’. However, I do see why one of them would, especially because there’s no grasp of what the word truly means in this modern era.
I don’t think that this instance should be considered trolling. This situation is better described as harassment. The comments are pestering the bride about her choice to lead a workout class on her wedding day. They lack the malice, bullying, chaos, and the ‘in group’ mentality. While some of the comments are anonymous, most are missing this aspect as well, using their real names as their handle and even linking their Instagram in their bio. The bad thing about trolling is that the word is very generalized nowadays. People will throw out the word ‘troll’ to describe any type of mean comment. So, while I don’t think this is trolling in the slightest, other people may refer to this behavior as ‘trolling’ when it’s something else entirely.
In the article, “Trolling the Web: A Guide,” a troll is described as someone to attract ‘newbies’ and ‘flamers’ and utters information to them to make them look even more clueless and out of place, while also subtly signaling to fellow trolls that you’re trolling. All these comments lack any type of subtlety. A lot of the harassment online lacks this type of finesse and chooses to be outright. There are also no newbies to be pointed out. As mentioned, the only outsiders are the people who agree with the bride. However, can they even be considered outsiders because it was the bride who made the original TikTok?
The discussion of trolling is used very generally in today’s modern online culture. Trolling isn’t the only word to fall victim to the generalization. People use a lot of buzzwords that circle social media out of its original context since they’ve been in mainstream culture for so long. Some other examples are words like ‘woke’ and ‘click-bait.’ There is no clear sense of trolling. No matter how many scholars define it, no matter how many articles people read, people will take a very mainstream approach. The thing that is so interesting about trolling is that it does exclusively exist on the internet. In real life, it is very hard to have the qualities of a troll when the internet makes it so easy because there is easy access to amenities. It’s easier to cause chaos behind a screen than it is in real life. The term trolling and troll has lost its original meaning, especially with new generations adapting the term to fit their specific circumstances. There’s no true definition of trolling anymore. Everyone would classify it differently, which makes it harder to describe trolling instances. In an environment where almost everyone on social media is easily influenced, more difficult it is to keep the original meaning of a troll intact.
Trolling Blog 