I hated high school.

There is no other time in my life where I have felt so out of place and awkward. However, I’m glad I’m not in high school now because we live in a society where one’s social life has to be in tact both within society and online.

Could you imagine being the nerdy kid with a YouTube channel dedicated to video game culture and critiquing comic book themed movies like Wolverine and the X-Men franchises?

What if one of the popular kids started watching your channel and then shared the video of you reveling 100% in your dorkiness with everyone in the school?

Oh God, the ridicule, the devastation of going to school and having everyone snickering behind your back and making funny comments as you walk by.

And what about the channel comments?

They would probably be along the lines of ‘Get laid f#g’

Or ‘LOSER #nopussyforyou.’

We live in a very interesting time now. It has never been this technologically advanced or morally receded before in our history. There’s too much anonymity to go along with all of the new ways we can connect with one another.

If you look at the comments section of any article on any website, you will see a few comments that incite dialogue and then you come across other comments that are just plain ignorant.

Their main focus is to bring negativity and incite animosity.

Out in the real world there’s a set of rules that we must all follow which include:

If you don’t have something nice to say keep it to yourself.

Use your manners.

Certain words should only be used in the privacy of your own homes.

These rules are fine for real life. But they get tossed to the side from behind the safe haven of our computer screens in the online world.

This is where we can type all of the things that we can’t say out in the real world for fear of public ridicule. There are no obligations to feel anything when we relay our feelings through the conduit of a keyboard.

It is an emotionless exchange.

Some people, though, only know how to be negative when they turn their computers on.

These wonderful people are referred to as Trolls.

And I would have to say it’s because they have ugly spirits but the word is a derivative of trolling, which is a fishing term where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are drawn together through the water.

Some trolls are fishing for confrontation. And you can immediately recognize who they are because they’ll be the ones making the most outrageous comment on a photo or article.

Then you have the other trolls that are fishing for compliments, like when I see pictures of scantily clad girls on Facebook and the thousands of comments they get, ranging from, “Damn you’re hot” to “I wanna stick my tongue in your buttcrack.”

Now, you may say a girl is hot to your friends, but if you walked up to her and said it to her face she may either laugh at you for being a total dumbass or she may be into the compliment. I can not, however, think of a time when it would be appropriate to walk up to anyone and tell them you want to stick your tongue inside one of their body parts.

See how the rules shift from situation to situation?

Trolls are notorious for talking big shit behind the computer screen but they’re pussies in real life.

Think of all the racist and homophobic comments you’ve ever seen written in response to articles online, or even on YouTube videos. Do you think those people would have the audacity to say these things in public? Of course not, because when they’re all alone at home they can be who they truly are without the repercussions of being labeled a racist or a homophobe.

Trolling is cathartic. It empowers you with a sense of triumph because you can finally say what you want and not care how anyone takes it because you’re saying it to a bunch of people that you’re never going to see.

It makes you feel like the person you really are.

A fucking punk.

Trolls make me nervous because they could be ANYONE. Your mailman, your bus driver, your co-worker who never speaks to anyone. Who knows what other kind of crazy, sadistic shit is bubbling upstairs in their convoluted minds.

And a lot of times the trolls are the followers because Leaders say what they mean and make sure you understand their intent from the jump. There’s no time for ideals to be misconstrued and there damn sure won’t be anytime to bite your tongue until you get home and blast everything you read with a negative comment. 

The trolls are sad, broken individuals, which is why they reside underneath their bridges behind the computer screen where they belong.

As our society becomes more technologically advanced you can best believe that there will continue to be an undercurrent of nasty comments and derogatory terms of slander coming from the keyboards of these pathetic invisible creatures.

Just try your best not to become one of them.