Where it Began...

With so many technological advancements having been made in the past few decades, it is hard to remember a time when these improvements weren't such a big part of our society. With new advancements in the Internet comes those who want to use its anonymity to their advantage to do some pretty harsh things. Internet trolling has become such a common occurrence that it is now just a normal part of the Internet. It is something that most people encounter in some form in their life. Thinking about it now makes me wonder where it all began and why it is even called "trolling" to begin with. I began to become curious on when trolling was first documented on the Internet and why trolling of all things is what it is called. I did a bit of research, and according to the Oxford English dictionary, the word troll had first been used to describe people on December 14th, 1992 in the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban. This happened when one user had posted "Maybe after I post it, we could go trolling some more and see what happens." From there on out, the word was used to describe a certain type of person on the Internet and has become a part of our everyday vocabulary (sadly).