Safely Engaging with Online Trolls

You gotta know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ‘em.

Writing is a dangerous undertaking, especially when you write personal essay and editorials. There have been times I have hit the “Ready to Publish” button and knew full well that there would be comments. So many comments.

My first taste of writing backlash came ten years ago. I was one of the first bloggers for AZ Central, an online version of the Arizona Republic. I could write about whatever local thing I wanted.

I wrote a piece about what it was like to be in your early 30s, freshly divorced, and living in Scottsdale. To summarize the piece: it wasn’t fun.

The next week, a counter piece was written by an old, white, male blogger who raked me over the coals for daring to criticize our city. He made loads of assumptions about me that were far from accurate. Thanks for that, Howard, you troll.

I was pissed. How dare he! I felt the need to defend myself. This, mixed with a healthy love of a good argument, can make for an online apocalypse. Not a good idea for the faint of heart.

We live in an age where any ass clown with a computer can come at you for anything and…