Final Essay

Jackson Barackman

RWS 200

Christopher Werry

May 13, 2015

Incivility is Only Abuse

With such a growing population and the growing demand for technology there is bound to arise issues, such as online incivility. Online incivility is an abusive way to attack others without having to be face to face with them. Many of the younger generations may have used or heard of the word “troll”, a common term for a person trying to invoke a negative response out of a person or community. A “troll” can commonly be found on social Medias, online article, or blogs. It is the easiest way to bully someone and not feel guilty.”trolling is one of the commonly seen forms of incivilities today, because of the high demand for social networks and media. “Chloe Madeley, the Daughter of television presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, … was trolled after she defended her mother’s remarks about the convicted rapist Ched Evans.” (Watt 1) It can be seen that even when defending someone of importance, “trolls” will attack an open victim and spread their venom of insecurities and threats. In this essay I will be explaining the growing issue of the incivility “trolling” and what may be a possible solution to stop the outrageous acts of harm it causes.

According to a study conducted by the US Cyberbullying Research Center, as mentioned by Alexandra Gheorghe “52% [of] US students and 33% [of] teens admitted to have been cyberbullied…” (Gheorghe 1), this shows the high amount of “trolling” incidents that become bullying. With such high numbers you would think that the government would want to prevent this from happening. Schools try to prevent it on campus, but can do little to prevent it on social media. Having been victim to bullying, I would want someone to step in and prevent these situations because it is hard to confront the attacker or even higher authority to stop such cruel behavior. Gheorghe, author of “What’s ‘Internet Trolling’ And How Can It Affect You?” then states that there are ways of preventing these situations. Gheorghe says to report the attacker, change passwords frequently, deactivate or delete social media, ignore comments, or in the worst cases contact authorities. Why would contacting authorities not be the first on this list? All cases of cyberbullying are situations where incivility has created a growing issue. Anyone can be provoked online at any moment, and Cyberbullying should not be tolerated, by passing laws to prevent such situations.

In an article by Nicholas Watt, “Internet trolls face four times longer in jail, chris grayling pledges” , Watt discusses the justice secretary’s plan to imprison online abusers for six months to two years. The six month plan would be extended to two years sentence for online abuse. Grayling says

These internet trolls are cowards who are poisoning our national life. No one would permit such venom in person, so there should be no place for it on social media. That is why we are determined to quadruple the six-month sentence.(Watt 1)

Having agreed with Grayling’s statement, the best possible answer for a crime that damages many youths into their adulthood should be a jail sentence. Some may argue that the trolling is a sign of “freedom of speech”, however in America it isn’t legal to threaten the life of the President, so why should we make it legal for anyones life to be threatened. Do we not all have equal rights? Are we not all governed by the same laws? There is no room for a threat towards anyone and the problem should be dealt with immediately to protect everyone. The use of governed law to provoke fear into the civility offenders, may cause a wave of positive feedback and a safer environment for everyone using social media.

    In Clive Thompson’s article “Smarter Than You Think”, Thompson points out a frequent blogger named Ta-Nahesi Coates who found a solution to a safe environment on his articles and blog posts. Thompson says “The instant he saw something abusive, he’d delete it, banning repeat offenders.”(Thompson 3) This shows that it is possible to prevent the online incivilities of trolls with careful observation. Thompson goes on to explain how an “up vote” system was created on The Atlantic to help promote the quality responses of others. People have created safe environments to create discussion and negate the nastiness. Communities have been formed over facebook and various websites to help control the comments seen and posted to many threads. With a well maintained security created by communities the internet no longer has to be filled with the incivilities created by cruel people. Places such as Youtube, Reddit, and Facebook have only a small amount or none of the security features that some community based websites have. The use of racial slurs or sexual terms are commonly found on unprotected websites that are open to public commenting, especially when anonymity is present. To force people into showing their real identities could possibly stop many of the online incivilities seen today. It would cause these “trolls” and bullies to have to take blame for what they say. Overall, this would create a much safer environment for not just teenagers and children, but people of all genders, races, sizes, and ages.

    Having personally been affected by the form of bullying known as “trolling”, it is apparent to me that authors such as Gheorghe and Thompson present great ways to help prevent this cruel act. Grayling, however, speaks to me the most. Graying believed that punishment by jail sentence is appropriate for these abusers. When a large amount of threats, negativity, and racism is seen on just a single thread, the entire thread may be flagged, however should the threads be banned or just the people who create such nasty comments? The feeling one receives from the comments can cause the thoughts of suicide or physical harm. To invoke a human being to the point of risking their own life at the sake of relieving comments should be illegal and taken in a very serious manner. I have learned that “trolling” is one of the ugliest forms of online incivilities and affects more than 50 percent of US students. The creation of safe online communities is a great example how to prevent and stop the online incivilities of today. Higher security should be implemented on social media and public threads.

    In conclusion, the incivility of “trolling” online is a growing issue that demands for an immediate solution. Having personally experienced some of these situations I can agree with many of the authors mention. Thier opinions and ideas to solve the constantly growing issue may be some of the best. The idea of creating a community to protect others against harmful attacks is a great place to start when trying to solve this issue. It is important to know that when a situation arises that causes damage to others that it is taken care of immediately without hesitation. Sentencing these “trolls” to jail is an extremely effective tactic that should be used more. I believe that all the authors had strong views and opinions on the matter. If I were to improve anything about what should be done to prevent the further spread of incivility online, it would be to continue the creation and spread of honest communities based around the support of others. Thompson makes a very strong argument when he describes the security put up by Coates to not only keep a thread on topic, but to also keep the community from harm's way. Finally, with the rise of technology today, the future will hold a  great place for interacting with others in safer manners. Although the internet is young it will grow with the communities always looking for a kinder and more intellectual thread.

Work Cited

Gheorghe, Alexandra. "What's “Internet Trolling” And How Can It Affect You?" Blog             BullGuard Your Online Security Hub. N.p., 17 Jan. 2013. Web.

Thompson, Clive. Smarter than You Think. N.p.: Penguin, 2013. 77-81. Print.

Watt, Nicholas. "Internet Trolls Face Four times Longer in Jail, Chris Grayling Pledges."             The Guardian. N.p., 19 Oct. 2014. Web.