A new "word" for me: LULZ.

Did you know it?

An interesting analysis on everything about internet TROLLS, including WHY they do it. The LULZ.

Who knew?

Is this a term most of you know? If so, I'm feeling really out of it.

https://newrepublic.com/article/134440/trolls

But there’s something better than nothing when it comes to trolling: The Lulz. Phillips defines lulz as “acute amusement in the face of someone else’s distress, embarrassment, or rage.” Lulz are the object of trolling, the gold coins in the videogame of human interaction. To the troll, other people exist to taunt for lulz, to laugh along, or for both. Drawing on the Marxist idea of “commodity fetishism,” Phillips mints the term “lulz fetishism” for the trollish mindset. Just as the commodity form obscures the production process—you don’t see labor exploitation when you buy a product, you just see the iPad or whatever—lulz fetishism flattens everything into teasing. You don’t see the anguish of the person on the receiving end of the harassment or abuse.

...The trolls that Phillips studied, even if they occasionally land on a worthwhile target, do their best to make the world a worse place.

Anyway, I think it's a really great article. Personally, I don't think I've ever been motivated in my internet posting by LULZ. That seems so MEAN. How about you?

On the other hand, often when reading teasing and baiting type of posts directed at me, especially really personal dig type stuff blatantly trying to enrage and get under my skin, now I can imagine that the LULZ might be behind it. Before, I just thought mean and kind of CRAZY. I find it helpful to have a more sophisticated academic theory (and cool word!) about why trolls do what they do beyond them just being insufferably MEAN a-holes.

This isn't an invitation to name trolls. More about the troll theory of lulz in a general sense.

I should imagine it started on 4chan. They used to have some awful but funny trolling sessions on there but I haven't checked that site out for a few years now. The king of the trolls has got to be Weev

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev

I still enjoy the odd Facebook trolling session as it sorts out the true friends who know the real me from the Facebook "friends" who just unfriend me whenever I post something that upsets them. Being reprimanded for bad taste and shocking comments should always be answered with "I did it for the lulz" for maximum unfriending.

Welcome to 2007.