What drives a troll to troll? - Part One: Physical Anonymity

Big question. Probably won't be able to answer this the first time around.

Let's explore anonymity - the glorious blessing conferred to an otherwise mundane internet user which allows them to act out their desires and true motives without actually revealing themselves. It's a deep subtopic, so for now I'll explore physical anonymity, aka not being there at the time of trolling.

With the benefit of physical anonymity, this happens: Cyber-bullied to death

"Unknown to Anne, 18, he had been flirting with other girls, telling them that he was single. So when he saw that Anne had posted pictures of them together, he got angry.

Anne, who had quit studying to work on the front desk of a hotel, was so depressed by his comments that she wanted to take her own life."

He got angry. He had the means to get directly at his girlfriend's head without having to confront her. She didn't have a chance to pile drive him and walk away.

Physical anonymity is a key factor of emotional abuse. The already existing feeling of helplessness in the victim's head is compounded by the fact that they're not there to actually do anything about it. For some hard psychology and large text blocks, look up learned helplessness.

I'm sure I've brought you down enough - in the interest of not leaving your moods too bleak here's something light: What happens when a troll sheds the only advantage they have?

This is what (usually) happens when you try to troll someone face to face. What's great about this video is that it is pretty much characteristic of all types of internet trolling situations at any given time, save for the response.

The smaller kid, who takes the role of the troll in this reel, decided to throw himself at a bigger target with no foresight of the consequences. The result is, predictably, hilarious. I'll wager a delicious cake and say that this kid has some sort of trolling experience and decided to shed the veil of anonymity in an attempt to show his trolling prowess.

So that's that. In the next post on this series I'll explore general facelessness and what the advantages are.