Do you think that trolling can lead to psychological disorders?

Well, as you all know, I’m a habitual troll with multiple accounts, in case you’d like some “Horse’s Mouth” testimony on this one.

I agree that habitual and mean-spirited trolling, can lead to a loss of perspective, the same way that tireless campaigning for any emotionally driven cause can. In the end, the troll loses objectivity, and ceases to be constructive in any way.

As for your question of “Can constant sarcasm lead to believing the sarcasm as if it’s one’s true opinions, alongside inherent conflicting ones, causing a psychological crisis resulting in a schism of personality?” I think yes, there are plenty of hypocrites on Y!A…but people with personalities so unstable that they are split, are few and far between even on the internet… And we all know that Trolls are a significant % of the population on Y!A. So I’ll say, “Probably Not”.

I.

WOW! Not if the alternate personality is kept like a character in a novel or book or something. But then where is the line between sanity and insanity? Who has decided this? It has long been thought by many cultures across time that those who are thus afflicted have been touched by the gods. So I say to you that perhaps insanity is in fact in itself an alternate reality.

So where you speaking of someone in-particular? I know that it can’t be you because I have met you and you are just as you are here. Loving, kind and knowledgeable. Blessed be…~M~

Source(s): Folklorist/Good Witch

I don’t think that a split personality would come about from such behavior. I think it would have to be a pre-existing condition. I do find the alter egos of some more pleasant than their regular accounts though. Some of this song reminds of your question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOLiguB_ZyY

And in case it was missed, just for the sake of a good version of a good song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrVSkK5h188&feature…

*edit* the first song is Ben Harper- Fight Outta You

the second, just for kicks song is Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Jack Johnson- Breakdown

I would think it is the other way around…

Emotional issues may lead to pretending (and perhaps believing it eventually) to be someone one is not.

Also curiosity might be the culprit… wondering what it might be like ot be said personality…

Or even having to hide who one is in “real” life and allowing their “inner self” to emerge online.

However, split personalitlies are usually cause by trauma… an event happens, the person is, for whatever reason (usually too young or immature) to deal with the situation, and a personality is created to deal with it on behalf of the original personality….

Perhaps there is someone, somewhere, who has Mutiple personality disorder and therefore has multiple accounts?

Source(s): don’t ask.

I think that the fact that I troll people and get out my frustrations on them makes me a better person. Ever since I started doing it, I’m a lot nicer on the roads and to cashiers and such. Being a jerk online has made me a nicer person in real life. It’s nice to vent.

Speaking as, well, Agent Smith but under my usual account,(hi, folks) I’ll just say some people take themselves far, far, far, far too seriously.

Just be glad this isn’t some AOL, mIRC or F-Net Chat room from the mid to late 90’s where people were literally battling it out with all kinds of malicious add-on programs.

***Sigh, actually, those days people were more likely to watch what they said online if they knew other people could just mouse-click and drop kick them off the server. Times were simpler then.

Trolling is socially dysfunctional, almost by definition. Entertaining yourself by intentionally upsetting others, is not normal or emotionally healthy.

Those who claim literary license and seek to define it as a form of satire, or sophisticated sarcasm, are vaguely aware of this problem, and are trying to rationalize it.

Those who merely say that it is nothing more than harmless fun, prove the point outright.

I don’t think it would cause a split personality, but yes, I would think it could effect their everyday personality.

A line from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Mother Night” comes to mind. “Be careful who you pretend to be, because in the end, you are who you pretend to be.”

I don’t think it just goes for trollers in Y!A but also people who frequent chat rooms, or any online social situations where they are acting in a way completely different from their regular personality. Eventually, I think they start to become the fake personality to some degree.

Good question.

Personally, I don’t think a person varies very far from their true nature. I tend to think that the viewpoints aren’t really opposite of what they really think. However, when not in an anonymous atmosphere they may tend to say what they think is the right thing to say instead of what they really think because of fear of the consequences. In a place like Yahoo – where everyone is anonymous, it provides a vehicle for people to say what they really think without the risks they would normally have.

Also, for me I have to question what do they really get out of asking these questions? It seems to me that some people enjoy posting questions to push buttons to see how many other people they can get upset and worked up.

I find it quite juvenile and perhaps even emotionally stunted to do that. It’s similar to the behaviour of small children who are just learning about the world and limits, consequences both good and bad.

It would be interesting to see if this was NOT an anonymous forum – and people had to use their real names and faces if they would still be as belligerent. But obviously that’s not something we will ever know.

Just my thoughts. 🙂

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I don’t think so, it’s just a bit of harmless fun like role playing.

Sure lots of people on the ‘net are nuts, but the good trolls (ones that ask witty provacative questions – not the ‘how dos a lady hav a babby’ ones) are mostly just pretending that the cheese has slid off their cracker.

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