Cyber self harm: Why do people troll themselves online?

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25120783

Cyber self harm: Why do people troll themselves online?

Young people are anonymously bullying and trolling themselves online in what some are calling cyber self-harm. Why?

Internet trolling is on the increase, according to recent reports. When people are bombarded with abuse and threats on social networking sites the common assumption is that a stranger is doing it, but it's not always the case.

Some people do it to themselves.

It's known as self-trolling or self-cyberbullying and some charities and social media experts say it is part of another emerging problem they are calling cyber or digital self-harm.

Statistics on prevalence are not easy to come by, with just one known study into the practice so far. The Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Centre (MARC) found that of the 617 students it interviewed, 9% had anonymously cyberbullied themselves.

"I don't think it dawned on anyone that teens would leverage anonymity in this way, it tends to startle anyone I tell about it," says youth culture and technology expert Dr Danah Boyd, one of the first people to highlight cyber self-harm.

Ellie, not her real name, was 15 when she started anonymously self-trolling herself. She eventually spoke to the charity www.selfharm.co.uk about her problems and it has given permission for her story to be retold in this article. The teenager set up multiple online profiles and used different names to post abusive messages to herself.

"The posts would say I was ugly, I was useless, I wasn't loved… all the stuff in my head," she says. "If I saw it in black and white coming from 'other people' I knew it must be true."

Another type of self cyberbullying identified is when people post personal questions online specifically to get negative responses - things like "am I attractive"? The abusive replies reinforce what the person feels about themselves.

"It persuaded me I was as bad as I thought, I wasn't imagining it," says 16-year-old Ben, not his real name, who also spoke to www.selfharm.co.uk about the problem.

Both are a development in self-harm, says Rachel Welch, director of the charity.

"It may not leave a visible injury but it needs to be recognised as a real emotional danger to young people who already have a very damaged sense of self. What's happening is only really starting to emerge now and it's worrying, it can be really dark stuff."

In the MARC study people gave different motivations for cyberbullying themselves. They include a "cry for help", to gain attention from adults and peers and to get people to worry about them and "stick up" for them online.

(continued)

[PsychoSerenity]

Interesting. I would have never expected that, yet it doesn't surprise me. Life can be difficult and complicated.

[Mysturji]

It did surprise me when I read it on BBC about an hour ago.
The answer is (at the risk of appearing non-PC...

Because they're fucked in the head. They need therapy, and probably medication. Now.

[pErvinalia]

I think our whole society needs medication.

[cronus]

How many sock puppets here today?

[Audley Strange]

How fascinating. This could actually be some form of dissociative disorder in which the component parts of an individuals personality, which can often manifest as very different "voices" in their heads behaviour sets and names, are externalised beyond the body. As horrible as such self abuse sounds, by externalising their own thought processes in such a way that they could be analysed objectively rather than second hand through the person's descriptions of them, we might begin to understand more about the internal narratives of people who are in this situation, may find a way to combat it.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It's self-harm. No real difference between this and cutting, deliberate risky behaviour, hair-cutting, etc. Just a new medium for the same symptom. I am actually surprised it has taken this long to be recognised as a "thing".

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Cue Von Starnberg in 3...2...1...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Cue Von Starnberg in 3...2...1...

[Chaz]

Cue Von Starnberg in 3...2...1...

Alright, don't fackin' encourage the cant.

[JimC]

Some may do so because they have heard of others being cyber bullied, and see that "attention", even though negative, as something to desire...

Or perhaps to gain sympathy from others over their experience of being "bullied"

Neither of which is to denigrate the people involved, just to point out that there is a variety of potential motivations for the phenomenon...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Some may do so because they have heard of others being cyber bullied, and see that "attention", even though negative, as something to desire...

Or perhaps to gain sympathy from others over their experience of being "bullied"

Neither of which is to denigrate the people involved, just to point out that there is a variety of potential motivations for the phenomenon...

All of which are fucked up and ultimately as self-destructive as the behaviour they induce. Weird creatures, huminz.

[JimC]

Some may do so because they have heard of others being cyber bullied, and see that "attention", even though negative, as something to desire...

Or perhaps to gain sympathy from others over their experience of being "bullied"

Neither of which is to denigrate the people involved, just to point out that there is a variety of potential motivations for the phenomenon...

All of which are fucked up and ultimately as self-destructive as the behaviour they induce. Weird creatures, huminz.

Only in Maths is there purity. All else is dross...

[Svartalf]

Funny, I'd say the same, but about sex

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Funny, I'd say the same, but about sex

Then you clearly haven't encountered Brazilian fart pr0n