Trolls have gone too far

[Hybrid Trainer]

I'm not one with words so i won't really do this story justice but ill do my best

On valentines day a 15 year old girl threw herself under a train, Natasha MacBryde was belied to be taunted over her parents divorce. After this tragic event pupils from her school set up a memorial page on the social networking site Facebook. However it became a target for trolls who began posting comments and meme images that said things like 'Natasha wasn't bullied, she was just a *****' and'I caught the train to heaven LOL'

The full story can be found here:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359688/Natasha-MacBryde-escape-Facebook-bullies-death.html

Discuss.

I personally think that the internet has gotten out of control. the amount of sick people out there that are doing things like this is unbelievable. These people should have what they've done branded onto there forehead, or something to that effect.

 

[Joey's Rattata]

Wow. That's just... horrible. How could anybody say such cruel things about somebody who died? :/

I honestly don't know what to say about this. I'm just really disgusted right now.

 

[Feign]

Anonymity is the driving force. Remember, trolls do it only to garner a reaction, nothing more. I don't condone what is being done, but people must learn that this is the Internet, and anything can happen. Right or wrong. You have a comment box and people are going to say what they want. The best way to counter a troll is ignorance, and if possible reporting the matter. Any mod here will agree. Yelling at the person and what not (even defending the victim) only serves to inflame the situation further.

As for the girl herself, it is unfortunate that she was driven to suicide by taunting peers. She must have been looking for a redeeming force, and never found it. :/

Next time you see someone being bullied, intervene, it shows the victim you actually care. Going to a teacher doesn't always help the problem, and depending on the school too. Some schools are better than others in this matter, such as laying it out in the open and mediating a sort of seize fire.

The reason victims are to afraid to find help is a couple of main reasons. Such as they don't want to appear weak, and they might not want to appear as a taddle-tale. I'm being simplistic here as there are a million other reasons.

 

[Meganium]

It's bullying at it's best. It's increasingly out of control, and unfortunately there isn't a way to stop it at all. I, as well, is also disgusted.

My condolences go out to the family of the late 15-year-old.

 

[Blue Nocturne]

There's trolls and there's vile, vicious, sadistic little ****s like this; don't put them in the same group. I'm all for a little trolling when it's in good taste, trolls can be hilarious if they're good at what they do, but this is just disgusting.

It's a shame she died, RIP Natasha.

 

[Alice]

There's trolls and there's vile, vicious, sadistic little ****s like this; don't put them in the same group.

This.

I like a little trolling here and there, but some people go way beyond just trolling.

 

[Captain Fabio]

Well, yes this is horrible, but there will always be people like this.
The internet hasn't gotten out of control, because people would say things like that IRL if they didn't have Facebook.
That is like saying people wouldn't kill people if they hadn't played Manhunt.

Don't get me wrong, it is sick and disgusting people even consider this funny, but the Internet isn't to blame.

Anyway, I hope this all blows over and her family can remember their daughter/sister/friend for who she really was and not what some idiotic people thought she was.​

​

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

There's trolls and there's vile, vicious, sadistic little ****s like this; don't put them in the same group. I'm all for a little trolling when it's in good taste, trolls can be hilarious if they're good at what they do, but this is just disgusting.

Exactly.

People who do this kind of "trolling" (dare I even suggest they're akin to my brand of trolling) are vile. Why one would make fun of anyone's death... it's a mockery to that person's existence as a whole. Just because you're anomynous doesn't make it right.

 

[Purple Materia]

Anonymity is the driving force. Remember, trolls do it only to garner a reaction, nothing more. I don't condone what is being done, but people must learn that this is the Internet, and anything can happen. Right or wrong. You have a comment box and people are going to say what they want. The best way to counter a troll is ignorance, and if possible reporting the matter. Any mod here will agree. Yelling at the person and what not (even defending the victim) only serves to inflame the situation further.

As for the girl herself, it is unfortunate that she was driven to suicide by taunting peers. She must have been looking for a redeeming force, and never found it. :/

Next time you see someone being bullied, intervene, it shows the victim you actually care. Going to a teacher doesn't always help the problem, and depending on the school too. Some schools are better than others in this matter, such as laying it out in the open and mediating a sort of seize fire.

The reason victims are to afraid to find help is a couple of main reasons. Such as they don't want to appear weak, and they might not want to appear as a taddle-tale. I'm being simplistic here as there are a million other reasons.

Sadly, this is completely true.

 

[Ibis]

That's disgusting and shameful that people would even do and say such things. :(

My condolences to the family; I can't even begin to imagine how this might feel to them - especially if familial problems were cited as one of the reasons for her immense emotional pain.

In terms of discussion:

I agree; the internet isn't to blame.

Yes, the internet provides a way for people to anonymously say what they want to say regardless if what they want to say is positive or not...

But it's people themselves who abuse the internet for what it is and who LET the abusers continue to abuse without being disciplined who are to blame.

Mostly, it's the parents who refuse to watch their kids (and we ARE talking about kids here) and who refuse to discipline their kids and who refuse to BE parents.

It's also the other kids who feel the same way that you do but who won't and don't stand up to that sort of awful behavior, who, by keeping their silence are egging those other kids on to continue the craptastic behavior.

It's also the school; if they ever found out who wrote and said such things, the students in question (if they ARE in fact students) need to be disciplined for it - preferably suspended or expelled for a long enough time to drive home to both the kids and parents in question that such behavior isn't even remotely okay or tolerated.

Basically, the sort of behavior described is being tolerated by others when it shouldn't be.

The internet gives an outlet for that sort of disgusting behavior and it offers a way for people to jump on the bandwagon, but what is making them do that in the first place? What is making them think it's okay or funny or even socially acceptable to do such things?

I'm older than a lot of you here if not older than most of you and I've been using the internet a long longer than most of you and have gone through primary, secondary, university, and beyond in terms of schooling.

This sort of behavior - on the internet or in real life or otherwise - was NOT always so tolerated or so socially acceptable. On the internet, trolling was more limited to someone pointing out a factual flaw that someone made in their reasoning (like, pointing out that literally, 2 x 3 is -6- and NOT 5) and not... what it has become in the more recent years.

In real life, if someone - even in some of the most prejudiced areas and I was a minority growing up in a racially prejudiced area - spouted off some crap like that, you could bet that not only would they get into trouble with their family, but the school would be involved, and the person(s) would become a social outcast.

Trolling was NOT a socially acceptable thing to do once upon a time.

Nowadays, people cheer and clap along to the tune of this sort of thing from the most mild and minor to the most grave and serious.

It isn't the INTERNET that is to blame; it is society.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

Not all trolls are bad. Some trolls just have harmless fun by being stupidly silly rather than attacking people.

 

[twocows]

This is hardly the first time something like this has happened. I remember stuff like this happening as far back as 2006 (probably farther). It's stupid and mean, but it happens.

 

[インフェルノの津波]

Twocows, if I may, just because something happens doesn't mean it's good. If I spammed this forum, every month, it wouldn't be good, correct?

Anyway, moving towards this incident, it appears human sensitivity is beginning to diminish greatly. In fact, if you look a few hundred years back from today, before the comforts of current technology, everyone was a hard worker and everything was fine. Plus everyone couldn't say things like that, because of the norms of then was if you didn't like someone you just told them so.

But now, everyone is a selfish bastard, to be honest. Proof of that is the reactions of this event. Twocow's comment is a bit disturbing, someone committing suicide and arrogant little adolescents making fun of such of an event is s sign that things aren't normal.

But I'm going off-topic, I'll just state what I think of this.

1. Why the hell did the school put this on Facebook? Because it would draw attention? Facebook is a [S-HIGHLIGHT]social-networking site,[/S-HIGHLIGHT] not a memorial service, so the school's decision to put that on Facebook, of all places, where teenagers can't grasp the true meaning or severity of this incident, was plain old retarded. So that's disturbing.

2. Those people were not trolling. Oh no. Trolling would mean they're intentional bashing something for their own enjoyment and they enjoy seeing negative feedback from people who like the thing they're "trolling.". However, trolls have varying degrees. There's the one's who try to troll, and there are the masters, who've been trolling for years.

But in this case, the two comments and others not mentioned (I highly doubt just two comments were made) were not trolling, at all. Those were people just looking for attention, and had a sick sense of humor. There is nothing funny about death. There is nothing funny about suicide, and there is nothing funny about calling someone a "*****". So, those who "liked" those comments either agree with them because they want to be popular or liked, or even worse they believe them, so that's incredibly disturbing.

I wish I could say more, but the amount of stupid decisions made on this matter is staggering. If i were the parents of the girl, I would've sued the school for putting this on Facebook. If I was the supervisor of the school, I would've fired whoever even came up with this idea, because none of this would've happened if it wasn't put on Facebook.

The entire matter is a insult to the girl's suicide, and her family. Good day.

 

[Yukimi]

The internet is just an outlet. Horrible people would do horrible things regardless.
It's terrible how cruel people can be. How do you live with yourself after doing something like that?

 

[インフェルノの津波]

The internet is just an outlet. Horrible people would do horrible things regardless.
It's terrible how cruel people can be. How do you live with yourself after doing something like that?

It's simple, actually.

People just don't care, and these are teenagers we're talking about. Also, it's "in" to be a complete jackass. This is why the internet is bad, it's like you said, it's an outlet for bad emotions.

This incident should be a wake up call for all, though if this kind of thing happened many times in the past, how would now change? The same kind of people do the same kind of things, over and over again. People notice, don't get me wrong, but the problem is they don't know what to do.

Take away internet, they get mad and talk at school and use their friends computer. Take that away, they harass the victim until they die. And they laugh at it.

This is how killers are made. The Homosexual suicides are proof of that.

Do you understand? The boundaries between right and wrong are broken.

There is no wrong anymore.

 

[Timbjerr]

Spend as much time on 4chan as I do and you'll be completely desensitized to stories like this...and you might even chuckle a little bit. Yes it's sadistic and cruel, but it's still infinitely more humane than actually killing someone.

Over the years, I've come to harden my emotions and ignore the vast majority of things directed towards me on the internet, as most people who use this modern tool should.

 

[Joey's Rattata]

Spend as much time on 4chan as I do and you'll be completely desensitized to stories like this...and you might even chuckle a little bit. Yes it's sadistic and cruel, but it's still infinitely more humane than actually killing someone.

Over the years, I've come to harden my emotions and ignore the vast majority of things directed towards me on the internet, as most people who use this modern tool should.

I'm sorry, but this whole post is horrible. You laugh at things like this?

This isn't just a "troll". This is somebody who died because of bullying, and yet still cannot escape being bullied.

And as for your last paragraph- if I read the article correctly, she was being bullied "in real life". Not on the internet. Only after she died did random people start this crap on the internet.

 

[Kura]

First of all, trolls have been "going too far" a long time ago.

Well, yes this is horrible, but there will always be people like this.
The internet hasn't gotten out of control, because people would say things like that IRL if they didn't have Facebook.
That is like saying people wouldn't kill people if they hadn't played Manhunt.
Don't get me wrong, it is sick and disgusting people even consider this funny, but the Internet isn't to blame.
Anyway, I hope this all blows over and her family can remember their daughter/sister/friend for who she really was and not what some idiotic people thought she was.​

​

I personally think, rather, that it's the fact that they can remain anonymous.


And I think, to be completely desensitized is to be inhuman, as it is in natural human nature to empathize. When one does not empathize, what do you get? A sociopath. A monster.

However, I agree with インフェルノの津波 a great amount.

 

[Akula]

Remaining Anonymous allows you to do whatever you want. I mean, you don't have to worry about being judged by what you do.
This allows people to go very violent without being told "Ew Freak".
This has led people to become desensitized, like myself and Timbjerr.
I mean, without rules of what you can and cannot do, you can do whatever you want.
*I do not condone doing horrible things like that though

 

[twocows]

Twocows, if I may, just because something happens doesn't mean it's good. If I spammed this forum, every month, it wouldn't be good, correct?

Anyway, moving towards this incident, it appears human sensitivity is beginning to diminish greatly. In fact, if you look a few hundred years back from today, before the comforts of current technology, everyone was a hard worker and everything was fine. Plus everyone couldn't say things like that, because of the norms of then was if you didn't like someone you just told them so.

But now, everyone is a selfish bastard, to be honest. Proof of that is the reactions of this event. Twocow's comment is a bit disturbing, someone committing suicide and arrogant little adolescents making fun of such of an event is s sign that things aren't normal.

I only said that it's not the first time it has happened, I don't see how that's selfish or disturbing at all. I certainly never said it was good or even tolerable. It's horrible and I feel very sorry for the family. However, this is not anything new. People do horrible, nasty things all the time. If you honestly think that people weren't this bad or worse in past times, you either haven't thought about it enough or are incredibly, incredibly naive. It has nothing to do with technology; there have been horrible people since the dawn of man and there will likely continue to be such people until the dusk of man. Stories like (and even worse than) this were pretty common back in the days of racial discrimination. Whites would often ridicule the families of the recently deceased among the black population, and few outside the victims' families and friends cared at all. It's far from the worst man has done in his history, and we haven't really changed nearly as much as some people would like to think.

Stories like these are sad, but they really do happen all the time. All we can do is lend our support and try to learn from it to prevent such things from happening in the future. If you really care, I would recommend you send the family your condolences and/or donate some money to the girl's funeral fund. And I think everyone should keep in mind that there are always these sort of people out there. It may have saved a lot of heartache if a system was used where comments needed review before being posted.