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Friday, December 27, 2013

How To Troll On The Internet

1. Do not troll on the Internet. Yeah, I know that might be a hard Step 1 for a change.
2. If you must troll on the Internet- and some of you certainly feel that way- do at least be careful not to push your victim over an emotional cliff. Establish some limits.
3. Say, if the person in front of you has posted a picture of their arm after having engaged in cutting, that is not an appropriate time to troll. If there is an appropriate time to troll, it's over comparatively petty things, like a sporting event, where it can be written off as smack talk. A person cutting themselves is a person that needs genuine support.
4. So it should go without saying that a person cutting themselves should not be told to continue cutting themselves.
5. If your online handles both reference the same thing- such as, say, establishing the both of you as fans of Selena Gomez- this is a further sign that this is not a person to troll. After all, perhaps the two of you would like each other if you got to know each other a bit. You know you have the one thing in common.
6. Many celebrities keep a close eye on their online fanbase.
7. Selena Gomez is one of those celebrities.
8. Celebrities are very often mindful of when their fans engage in behavior that is in opposition to the message they intend to spread.
9. Selena Gomez is friends with Demi Lovato, who at one point checked into rehab over, among other things, cutting.
10. If your handle is "selenagomesfan", be particularly careful of behaving in a manner consistent with that which Selena Gomez hopes to promote. The same goes for equivalent names of any celebrity. You more than anyone else are the ambassador for that celebrity; the way you treat others is going to factor into how others view the celebrity and particularly their fanbase.
11. You are also among the most visible fans to the actual celebrity.
12. Selena Gomez has a very large fanbase, large enough to where she can afford to jettison the occasional misbehaving fan.
13. Selena Gomez is well aware of item #12.
14. If you are "selenagomesfan" on Instagram, it may be time to get a new handle.

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