Why the troll problem is actually a culture problem: how online
trolling fits comfortably within today's media landscape.
Internet trolls live to upset as many people as possible, using all the
technical and psychological tools at their disposal. They gleefully whip
the media into a frenzy over a fake teen drug crisis; they post
offensive messages on Facebook memorial pages, traumatizing
grief-stricken friends and family; they use unabashedly racist language
and images. They take pleasure in ruining a complete stranger's day and
find amusement in their victim's anguish. In short, trolling is the
obstacle to a kinder, gentler Internet. To quote a famous Internet meme,
trolling is why we can't have nice things online. Or at least that's
what we have been led to believe. In this provocative book, Whitney
Phillips argues that trolling, widely condemned as obscene and deviant,
actually fits comfortably within the contemporary media landscape.
Trolling may be obscene, but, Phillips argues, it isn't all that
deviant. Trolls' actions are born of and fueled by culturally sanctioned
impulses--which are just as damaging as the trolls' most disruptive
behaviors.
Phillips describes, for example, the relationship between trolling and
sensationalist corporate media--pointing out that for trolls,
exploitation is a leisure activity; for media, it's a business strategy.
She shows how trolls, "the grimacing poster children for a socially
networked world," align with social media. And she documents how trolls,
in addition to parroting media tropes, also offer a grotesque pantomime
of dominant cultural tropes, including gendered notions of dominance and
success and an ideology of entitlement. We don't just have a trolling
problem, Phillips argues; we have a culture problem. This Is Why We
Can't Have Nice Things isn't only about trolls; it's about a culture in
which trolls thrive.
