The Evolution of the Internet Troll: Narcissistic Abuse & Toxicity in Cyberspace

A primer for traditional social media and emerging social audio spaces

By Dr. Jordan Schaul | Scapegoat Strength Coaching

Are you a keyboard jockey? Before you say no in a hasty attempt to distance yourself from the pejorative connotation, let’s explore what one really is? The broadest definition of a 'keyboard jockey’ describes someone who spends an inordinate amount of time in front of a computer or digital device for work or recreation.

With a little sarcasm and a '‘super pint” of reverence, a troll may also describe an adept computer coder or hacker. Perhaps in the strictest sense and by its most malevolent definition, a keyboard jockey describes a computer troll — someone who instigates and harasses others online with the intent to provoke and propagandize.

The advent of the smartphone revolutionized the opportunities for trolls to chase the digital dopamine hit by providing nearly continual access to the internet with a cell signal or a Wi-Fi connection. Today, trolling is a growing pastime for a global demographic of amateur provocateurs.

The advent of the smartphone revolutionized the opportunities for trolls to chase the digital dopamine hit by providing nearly continual access to the internet with a cell signal or a Wi-Fi connection. Today, trolling is a growing pastime for a global demographic of amateur provocateurs.

Unfortunately, like any addiction, trolling persists because trolls can’t actually satiate their ‘seeking’ behavior by acting out these compulsive tendencies. Trolls are hijacked by neurotransmitter-driven feedback loops. The more they indulge in the behavior, the more power it has over them. In essence, trolls become slaves to their own trolling behavior.

Trolls are hijacked by neurotransmitter-driven feedback loops. The more they indulge in the behavior, the more power it has over them. In essence, trolls become slaves to their own trolling behavior.

Trolls commonly seek opportunities to engage, and quite frankly enrage, complete strangers in politicized and polarizing discourse facilitated by exchanges in social media threads. I’ll add that trolling may become ‘pathological’ when it interferes with one’s normal life activities.

The intermittent reinforcement produced by scrolling for targets becomes a self-perpetuating, pleasure-seeking activity mediated by neurochemical mechanisms and it is very destructive. Trolls love to incite their ideological opponents, but even the most mundane and uncontentious topics can become fodder for those seeking a dopamine hit.

The 24/7 news cycle has polarized people over partisan politics, but our brains were already susceptible to influence by these neurochemical feedback loops. We trolled well before politicking became so much about character assassination and so little about policy reform. It just happens to be that we now have perhaps poorer models that are unfortunately leading by example.

Traditional social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook favored the wordsmiths and the one-liners, but social audio has encouraged a new caliber of troll. And trolling, itself is not a new phenomenon. Provocateurs existed long before the internet. But with the advent of social audio trolls have found a new way to stimulate their brains in unhealthy and decompensatory ways.

Social audio has permitted, if not encouraged, trolls to weaponize the most uncontentious subject manner in ways that belittle, badger, and dehumanize conspecifics — other human beings.

Voice adds a whole new dimension. In fact, misogynistic trolls now talk over women in addition to insulting or demeaning them. When language barriers arise, people exploit the command of their native languages to verbally assault and cancel people. But again, none of this could happen without algorithms and voyeuristic audiences poised to reinforce artfully sadistic behavior.

Narcissistic Trolling:
Whether trolls meander through hallways of social audio platforms or scroll through threads on FB and Twitter to rile up other users, there is an ample amount of narcissistic supply to go around.

Whether trolls meander through hallways of social audio platforms or scroll through threads on FB and Twitter to rile up other users, there is an ample amount of narcissistic supply to go around.

Regardless, of how mundane a topic may be, the tendency to be right at all costs is symptomatic of a ‘fragile ego’ and can certainly be characteristic of trait narcissism. But it is also the venue and nature of how we communicate in these spaces that create such hostility.

Traditional social apps have long been hunting grounds for digital provocateurs who troll conversations as a favorite pastime. The DSM could qualify excessive trolling as a use disorder. But it is the way we convene and engage on social media that brings out the worst behavior in some of the most mild-mannered people. Hence, it is the cultural norms and the rules of engagement that make these spaces so enticing and so toxic.