Ep. 630: The Sad, Lonely Life of Internet Trolls

I saw a story on Brett Johnson's account.

He's married to Chalene Johnson.

We talk about Chalene all the time.

Anyway, um, This is, I'm going to read the slides on his story.

I thought this was really interesting.

He said, the act of creating fake accounts, and he's talking about like Instagram account, maybe even YouTube, I don't know, fake accounts, and having a private profile has been studied.

Psychologist John Suler coined this term toxic disinhibition.

People act cruel, threatening, or stalk others.

And here's what the study revealed.

One, it revealed narcissistic injury.

These individuals, the individuals who make private accounts to troll people, often feel deeply humiliated by life.

They had failed relationships, career disappointment, social rejection.

Targeting someone who appears successful or happy is a way of evening the score in their own mind.

Your instinct is Clinically accurate.

So like, yeah, they're failing at life.

So they go like target happy people and write some shit on their accounts.

Two, covert aggression.

They want to harm, but they lack the courage for direct confrontation.

The fake account is essentially a weapon that they can fire from a bunker.

It's the behavioral signature of someone who feels powerless in real life.

Three, obsessive fixation, the stalking component.

Going to someone's page repeatedly, creating content about a specific person they don't know, suggests an obsessive thought pattern.

Clinically, this can border on erotomania or delusional thinking in extreme cases.

I don't know what erotomania is, but it sounds like something sexual, erotic.

I don't know.