2016/01/01 by Marta Dynel · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Psychology · #Computer science #Deception #Entertainment #Epistemology #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Humor Studies and Applications #Internet privacy #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Law #Linguistics #Order (exchange) #Phenomenon #Philosophy #Political science #Pragmatics #Psychology #Social psychology #The Internet #World Wide Web
paper · doi:10.1515/ip-2016-0015
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract This paper aims to distill the essence of Internet trolling, a prevalent intercultural online communicative phenomenon which appears in many forms and guises. However, the label “trolling” tends to be (mis)used in reference to communicative practices which are not trolling in the traditional sense. It is argued that trolling necessarily relies on deception performed in multi-party interactions, which is conducive to (humorous) entertainment of self and/or other participants, at the expense of the deceived target. Taking data from email communications of the “DontEvenReply” troll, this account not only draws on the literature addressing the focal phenomenon but also integrates findings from several other fields of investigation (the philosophy of deception, humor theory, and the pragmatics of interaction) in order to demystify trolling.