Hearing the word ‘trolling’ so much these days, like me, you’re probably thinking — or assuming? — you know exactly what the word means.
I thought I did, but checking the dictionary, I discovered ‘trolling’ can mean… “to fish by trailing” a fishing line.
It can also be defined as strolling, or wandering around, like when folks on holiday are ‘trolling’ past Big Ben or Buckingham Palace.
And there’s the definition we often associate with social media, when ‘trolling’ means… “posting inflammatory or otherwise unwanted material (usually about someone, or something) on an electronic forum.”
I remember hearing something about social media possibly causing peoples’ brains to release something that can cause a rush, of some kind, with ‘rush’ – an idiom in the dictionary – meaning a burst of some feeling or emotion, like angst or joy, which many of us might be experiencing if we happen to be reading inflammatory posts in social media.
So, now that I’ve looked up the word, I’m wondering — when I’m seeing people intensely fiddling on their phones — if I’m witnessing, right before my eyes, something major underway that could be ruining someone’s reputation, or even altering the course of history.
Just imagining such power emanating from someone’s tiny smartphone keyboard is overwhelming.
Seeing congressional representatives fiddling on their phones, recently, during what a New York Times headline described as (Kevin) “McCarthy’s slog” to getting elected Speaker of the House, I couldn’t help but wonder if various members of Congress were messaging inflammatory or irrelevant messages, or if, instead, they were booking a brief sojourn to some river or lake, so they could chill out… trolling for fish.
Or if, perhaps, they were booking a longer sojourn, so they could troll Big Ben or Buckingham Palace.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.