Internet trolls: Who are they? Why do they do it?

You know who I'm talking about. The people who make many internet discussion boards unreadable because they make outrageous comments designed to do nothing more than get people upset. A little research will show you that many of these trolls have thousands upon thousands of comments that they have left on particular message boards or on such services as Disqus. Why?

I'll give you a clue. I'm not an expert, but I think I can throw a little light on the subject.

Several years ago I started visiting internet chat rooms just to see what they were all about. I got really into it...for about a month. Then I stopped. Cold turkey. I realized two things. 1) It was taking up way too much of my time. And 2) You never really know for sure who that person is on the other end of the line. As most of you probably know, many (I won't estimate a percentage, but it is many, many) of the women you meet in a chat room are actually men.

So why do men go into chat room and pretend to be women? I've heard many theories offered up. They are perverts. They are secretly gay. They are bi-curious. These theories overlook the most likely reason men do this: Loneliness.

Seriously. It all boils down to loneliness. A man going into a chat room will have far more trouble attracting attention there than a woman will. So if you're a lonely guy looking for someone to have a long chat with, what's the best way to do it? Don't go into these rooms as a male; go in as a female.

I think the very same thing is true with most of these internet trolls. If they go onto a discussion board and write a normal comment, they won't attract much attention. If they are commenting on a news article and they write a normal comment, that comment will soon get buried in a pile of dozens of other comments. But! If they instead make some outrageous, racist, sexist or whateverist comments, suddenly they get attention! Suddenly everyone is paying attention to them.

And that is what they want. Attention. Because they are lonely.

So remember that next time you get heckled by an internet troll. It's probably just a lonely guy looking for a little attention. Knowing that doesn't make them any less annoying, I grant you, but it does make them a little easier to understand.