in the 90s trolls were the bomb I think
I had at least 40 of them prominently
displayed on my childhood bedroom walls
I’m still collecting trolls today but
it’s not the kind you like you see I’m a
meteorologist here in Oklahoma at the
NBC affiliate k4 TV news for King and I
absolutely love my job
do you like my uniform just kidding this
was submitted by a viewer on social
media and I want to tell you that at
least 98 percent of the viewers I would
estimate are awesome online or at least
neutral it’s only that 2% that can cause
issues and sometimes that’s all it takes
to sting now I love my job here I’ve
been here for eight years and I get to
cover some of the craziest weather on
earth as you all probably know from
firsthand experience and you would think
my talk would be about storm chasing
tornadoes or women in science technology
engineering and math which I’m very
passionate about but there’s some other
topic that was tugging at my heart that
I feel needs to be talked about now more
than ever
everyone is so polarized online and
really in our nation and it’s showing up
on our Twitter feeds on our Facebook
walls on Instagram and all social media
that’s why I decided the topic don’t
feed the trolls how to handle jerks on
social media yeah so this topic I think
hopefully will apply to everybody I
tried to do a little bit of research on
this and first I want to do a quick poll
from all of you no matter what your
political affiliation raise your hand if
you would say you’ve noticed a dynamic
shift towards negativity since the last
election yeah I think almost everyone’s
hand right now and so you’ve noticed as
well and so I wanted to do some research
on this topic
and I found there isn’t a lot of
research on this topic in the scheme of
things
Facebook hasn’t been around that long
and Twitter’s hasn’t even been around
that long as well so there hasn’t been a
long period of time to study things
second of all it requires on trolls self
reporting themselves which a lot of
people don’t want to admit to nasty
behavior so I did find some research and
by the way for the purpose of this talk
let’s define a troll as someone who’s
trying to get a rise out of you who’s
trying to press your buttons or trying
to take you off topic so that being said
one more poll who here would say they’ve
ever been trolled before that by someone
it could be a family member it doesn’t
have to be stranger and I think that’s
happened a lot as well I don’t know
which one’s worse so according to you
guv a survey of 1,100 American adults
28% admitted to malicious online
activity directed at somebody they
didn’t know in other words about a third
of them admitted to being a troll and
what so while this 45% of them admitted
to not knowing what a troll was so
sometimes we may be doing it and not
even knowing it what was the top thing
they told about shocker politics
number two news and three religion so I
wanted to find out more about the
history of trolls as well I thought it
was about the ugly troll under the
bridge that asks you a riddle before you
can pass no no if you remember that
childhood one it’s actually about this
hi dad no my dad’s not a troll but he’s
an avid fisherman and he taught me how
to fish growing up and there’s something
when you cast the line or you can have
multiple lines and then you drive the
boat really slow
it’s called trolling and it’s when the
bait moves and in hopes of fooling the
fish and the fish will catch on so this
totally clicked to me this is exactly
what people do on social media right
they’re casting a line and they’re
trying to get you to do something
usually if they want negative attention
right so they’re just
to get you to bite that’s simply not the
case
all right so how about this watch you
Monday through Friday noon I’ve noticed
something I think you need to know your
tops are too tight
by the way things are usually
grammatically incorrect and not spelled
right and it’s usually not a picture for
the profile picture and something’s
wrong with your bras you look like your
balls for boobs you are flat above your
boobs sorry I wrote back thanks for
really watching we’re ly supposed to
look like so given my job I may get a
little bit more trolling than others and
sometimes they are funny like this but I
reflected on all the times I’ve been
trolled and try to come up with a list
of how to respond and I’ve learned a lot
in this process one just from the
research and the history of it but to
now I will think more about it myself
before I respond and I’m hoping that
this will help you as well I first of
all would not claim myself to be an
expert in this area but I do have about
10 years of experience being
occasionally trolled and I will tell you
of also not perfect sometimes you’ll see
me not always respond in a perfect way
and that’s because I’m human and we all
have chinks in our armor I have to get a
tough skin for my job but sometimes I’m
not perfect
so one wait we have all learned this
right if you at work or school have to
write an email back to someone and it’s
a little harsh right it’s always better
to wait before you hit the Sun button or
maybe you’ve got an argument with your
partner and the first things that spew
out of your mouth from your brain not a
good idea
so wait is your best thing let it simmer
– the best thing to do is ignore hence
the title don’t feed the trolls
hopefully if you don’t feed them they’re
gonna go somewhere else so if you think
of fishing then if they catch you and
get a hook in your mouth and even if
they release you back you still may have
a scar so that’s a good idea you
definitely want to ignore them I am
lucky enough to
this online community on Facebook it’s
called female broadcast meteorologists
and all of us get to go on there and
post our different trolling experiences
and it’s great because we rally around
each other and you know sometimes you
need that person to put rational sense
into your head and hopefully for all of
you if something does happen and you do
get trolled you have someone to to be
that person for you but I also told them
I was doing this talk and asked them
what do you do and the number one
response was ignore them and then two
they said kill them with kindness or do
something funny maybe share a funny gift
so um
kill them with kindness is good one
female meteorologist said yeah but you
can do that but sometimes we have hard
days and wine helps too okay so how
about this one
hey Emily you’re not great of a weather
person you stink
have a blessed day Bradley thanks for
watching so I tried to kill him with
kindness there next you may want to
educate if someone posts something and
it is just straight-up wrong incorrect
and for me if it’s in my wheelhouse if I
am confident with knowing the topic like
weather or science I will respond
hopefully in a professional manner and
educate them here’s an example it’s kind
of a long one but your use of adjectives
is mind-boggling
saying this rain was beneficial saying
other rain is not saying rain event
sounds like something you need tickets –
why does weather need to be
sensationalized weather is the only real
thing the media has anymore and you
still manage to screw it up calm down
it’s rain a bit dramatic right although
it’s bent in probably a good two minutes
writing that that’s how upset he was
about me sensationalizing rain I wrote
back the rain is especially beneficial
right now because we are in a drought so
the term beneficial pertains to the
timing I want to point out that you are
incorrect because sometimes rain is not
beneficial when the ground is saturated
it can cause flooding and damage
farmland and then I posted the Drought
Monitor to prove that we are in a
drought
to the term event in meteorology
pertains to a storm system it’s not a
sensationalized term I will try to not
say event because non meteorologists can
misinterpret this term snark 3 how did I
screw it up what do you do for a living
I’d love to criticize it just kidding I
wouldn’t do that to a stranger
what perk up buttercup it’s Friday
thanks for watching and I hope you have
a blessed Easter weekend so on this one
I tried to educate and do a little bit
of humor at least you guys thought it
was funny and then and also be kind at
the end so that’s one example next stand
your ground sometimes it’s ok to
disagree just cause word of caution
remember if they’re baiting you they may
just be intentionally trying to get a
rise out of you but sometimes you just
need to say no this is how I feel this
is another female meteorologist she
actually posted this in our group like I
was talking about earlier and it was
only a few weeks ago I said hey can I
share this my TED talk she said sure so
someone said please burn that dress you
wore this morning she said sorry I loved
this dress too much good for her and
they wrote back now I feel like a donkey
sorry my boss is here and I doubted that
it even got read have a great Sunday
thank you for doing the weather report
so sometimes you just have to show that
we are real people so that other people
hopefully will remember this person will
remember next time maybe I shouldn’t
write something so mean because they’ll
actually read it and I’ll feel bad for
me I have one thing that I maybe brush
about and I almost think of it as an
educational or PSA moment yeah
so my 2 year anniversary is coming up
and here in Oklahoma I should have a
baby by now ok but but I get bothered
because yes I like to eat right and I do
like working out but some days I ate a
burrito
my stomach pooches out the next day
maybe I didn’t wear Spanx
maybe maybe I’m wearing a flowy dress
well that doesn’t make me pregnant
so it does drive me bonkers and on a
personal level I have come home to my
husband crying before because I’m just
like what can I do I’m not gonna starve
myself like and and I I do take that
personally and I do try and step back
and think all right these people are
just hopeful for good news and they are
not necessarily trying to say something
about my weight so Emily are you
expecting you’ve got a little bump dot
dot dot question mark so is it good
start to your Monday when you get this
no just gained a few pounds at Christmas
honestly my reproductive parts are none
of your business
thanks for watching well excuse me and
then this lady sub sin I don’t know this
person Kay Johnson wait okay yay and
amen Emily way to go just because you
were out there and in front of us every
day doesn’t mean that we should be privy
to your private personal information
keep up the good work so that was
awesome for her another Lydia I just
asked dang don’t get your driver’s I
think drawers upset shoot man i watch
channel 9
burn so and I haven’t been always this
harsh I’ve actually done plenty of post
before Jennifer Anderson and a great
post huffington a huffington post where
she had this article saying you know
it’s not our place to ask other people i
my i had a lady come up to me in the gym
and she said hey my friend loves every
time you write back because she’s had
multiple miscarriages and it’s
heartbreaking when someone asks her if
she’s pregnant or my best friend i was
with her this summer after she at 12
weeks had a miscarriage and i can’t
imagine how devastating would be for
someone to say oh look at your tummy do
you do you have you have a baby bump you
have a baby there i mean you don’t know
someone’s situation maybe someone really
is praying and hoping for a baby and
trying and then you ask what are you
gonna have your kid next that’s
devastating as well alright so next Bach
or report this talk is not about it’s
about trolls but it’s not about hate
speech or inappropriate activity bullies
that should not be tolerated my coworker
Ali Meyer and good friend she did a
controversial story a few years back and
someone actually put this online it’s a
video game kind of image with her face
everywhere and a gun that’s terrifying
that should be reported to the police
immediately
and what’s so sad I find look at that it
was liked 34 times and retweeted six
times I don’t know how someone has it in
them to do something like that
finally empathize and learn so let’s go
back to Bradley I know it’s funny right
so I thought it was funny I posted on my
Instagram I kept his name out but I
posted cuz sometimes I just want friends
and other people to know that people do
this and I think it’s kind of funny and
people found him the comment on Facebook
and then started trolling him back and
then he started trolling back he kept
fighting normally they back down but he
kept fighting they kept going and then I
got to the point where he turned around
and begged me he said I’m sorry Emily
but
getting threats please take the post
down and I was like you posted it but
and then I had an email the next day
from someone who said Emily I’m sure
you’re a great person I loved watching
you but you need to know that this
person has been bullied his entire life
he has learning disabilities and a few
years ago he talked about taking his
life and that made me realize whoa that
you know even the trolls are real people
and we need to think about where they’re
coming from sometimes and I found that
now thinking that way has spilled over
into my day-to-day life and then if
something somebody does something mean
or rude I try and think you know what
they’re having a bad day or who knows
where they’re coming from so hopefully
that will help you as well but it helps
to learn from people and have empathy
for even the trolls as well finally are
you a troll I need you to search deep
down in your soul yeah I said about a
third of Americans in that study there’s
1 billion people on Facebook that would
be 300 million people who have trolled
before out there if that’s the stat if
it relate so what’s what my simple
statement is for you if you wouldn’t say
something to someone in person
don’t say it online oftentimes we use a
screen a phone screen a computer screen
of the guys but there are real people
behind that and if you have an issue
with someone why don’t you direct
message them instead of putting it out
for the world to see and say it in a
nice way and finally I watched a TED
talk about the power of positivity and I
loved this idea of every day
post something nice to someone else
online and I would encourage everyone
here to do this challenge in the month
of February every day let’s try and post
something nice to someone else it could
be a stranger it could be a business it
could be a friend every day so we can
spread kindness and positivity
use the hashtag be kind so don’t be a
troll don’t feed the trolls and hashtag
be kind thank you
[Applause]
I had at least 40 of them prominently
displayed on my childhood bedroom walls
I’m still collecting trolls today but
it’s not the kind you like you see I’m a
meteorologist here in Oklahoma at the
NBC affiliate k4 TV news for King and I
absolutely love my job
do you like my uniform just kidding this
was submitted by a viewer on social
media and I want to tell you that at
least 98 percent of the viewers I would
estimate are awesome online or at least
neutral it’s only that 2% that can cause
issues and sometimes that’s all it takes
to sting now I love my job here I’ve
been here for eight years and I get to
cover some of the craziest weather on
earth as you all probably know from
firsthand experience and you would think
my talk would be about storm chasing
tornadoes or women in science technology
engineering and math which I’m very
passionate about but there’s some other
topic that was tugging at my heart that
I feel needs to be talked about now more
than ever
everyone is so polarized online and
really in our nation and it’s showing up
on our Twitter feeds on our Facebook
walls on Instagram and all social media
that’s why I decided the topic don’t
feed the trolls how to handle jerks on
social media yeah so this topic I think
hopefully will apply to everybody I
tried to do a little bit of research on
this and first I want to do a quick poll
from all of you no matter what your
political affiliation raise your hand if
you would say you’ve noticed a dynamic
shift towards negativity since the last
election yeah I think almost everyone’s
hand right now and so you’ve noticed as
well and so I wanted to do some research
on this topic
and I found there isn’t a lot of
research on this topic in the scheme of
things
Facebook hasn’t been around that long
and Twitter’s hasn’t even been around
that long as well so there hasn’t been a
long period of time to study things
second of all it requires on trolls self
reporting themselves which a lot of
people don’t want to admit to nasty
behavior so I did find some research and
by the way for the purpose of this talk
let’s define a troll as someone who’s
trying to get a rise out of you who’s
trying to press your buttons or trying
to take you off topic so that being said
one more poll who here would say they’ve
ever been trolled before that by someone
it could be a family member it doesn’t
have to be stranger and I think that’s
happened a lot as well I don’t know
which one’s worse so according to you
guv a survey of 1,100 American adults
28% admitted to malicious online
activity directed at somebody they
didn’t know in other words about a third
of them admitted to being a troll and
what so while this 45% of them admitted
to not knowing what a troll was so
sometimes we may be doing it and not
even knowing it what was the top thing
they told about shocker politics
number two news and three religion so I
wanted to find out more about the
history of trolls as well I thought it
was about the ugly troll under the
bridge that asks you a riddle before you
can pass no no if you remember that
childhood one it’s actually about this
hi dad no my dad’s not a troll but he’s
an avid fisherman and he taught me how
to fish growing up and there’s something
when you cast the line or you can have
multiple lines and then you drive the
boat really slow
it’s called trolling and it’s when the
bait moves and in hopes of fooling the
fish and the fish will catch on so this
totally clicked to me this is exactly
what people do on social media right
they’re casting a line and they’re
trying to get you to do something
usually if they want negative attention
right so they’re just
to get you to bite that’s simply not the
case
all right so how about this watch you
Monday through Friday noon I’ve noticed
something I think you need to know your
tops are too tight
by the way things are usually
grammatically incorrect and not spelled
right and it’s usually not a picture for
the profile picture and something’s
wrong with your bras you look like your
balls for boobs you are flat above your
boobs sorry I wrote back thanks for
really watching we’re ly supposed to
look like so given my job I may get a
little bit more trolling than others and
sometimes they are funny like this but I
reflected on all the times I’ve been
trolled and try to come up with a list
of how to respond and I’ve learned a lot
in this process one just from the
research and the history of it but to
now I will think more about it myself
before I respond and I’m hoping that
this will help you as well I first of
all would not claim myself to be an
expert in this area but I do have about
10 years of experience being
occasionally trolled and I will tell you
of also not perfect sometimes you’ll see
me not always respond in a perfect way
and that’s because I’m human and we all
have chinks in our armor I have to get a
tough skin for my job but sometimes I’m
not perfect
so one wait we have all learned this
right if you at work or school have to
write an email back to someone and it’s
a little harsh right it’s always better
to wait before you hit the Sun button or
maybe you’ve got an argument with your
partner and the first things that spew
out of your mouth from your brain not a
good idea
so wait is your best thing let it simmer
– the best thing to do is ignore hence
the title don’t feed the trolls
hopefully if you don’t feed them they’re
gonna go somewhere else so if you think
of fishing then if they catch you and
get a hook in your mouth and even if
they release you back you still may have
a scar so that’s a good idea you
definitely want to ignore them I am
lucky enough to
this online community on Facebook it’s
called female broadcast meteorologists
and all of us get to go on there and
post our different trolling experiences
and it’s great because we rally around
each other and you know sometimes you
need that person to put rational sense
into your head and hopefully for all of
you if something does happen and you do
get trolled you have someone to to be
that person for you but I also told them
I was doing this talk and asked them
what do you do and the number one
response was ignore them and then two
they said kill them with kindness or do
something funny maybe share a funny gift
so um
kill them with kindness is good one
female meteorologist said yeah but you
can do that but sometimes we have hard
days and wine helps too okay so how
about this one
hey Emily you’re not great of a weather
person you stink
have a blessed day Bradley thanks for
watching so I tried to kill him with
kindness there next you may want to
educate if someone posts something and
it is just straight-up wrong incorrect
and for me if it’s in my wheelhouse if I
am confident with knowing the topic like
weather or science I will respond
hopefully in a professional manner and
educate them here’s an example it’s kind
of a long one but your use of adjectives
is mind-boggling
saying this rain was beneficial saying
other rain is not saying rain event
sounds like something you need tickets –
why does weather need to be
sensationalized weather is the only real
thing the media has anymore and you
still manage to screw it up calm down
it’s rain a bit dramatic right although
it’s bent in probably a good two minutes
writing that that’s how upset he was
about me sensationalizing rain I wrote
back the rain is especially beneficial
right now because we are in a drought so
the term beneficial pertains to the
timing I want to point out that you are
incorrect because sometimes rain is not
beneficial when the ground is saturated
it can cause flooding and damage
farmland and then I posted the Drought
Monitor to prove that we are in a
drought
to the term event in meteorology
pertains to a storm system it’s not a
sensationalized term I will try to not
say event because non meteorologists can
misinterpret this term snark 3 how did I
screw it up what do you do for a living
I’d love to criticize it just kidding I
wouldn’t do that to a stranger
what perk up buttercup it’s Friday
thanks for watching and I hope you have
a blessed Easter weekend so on this one
I tried to educate and do a little bit
of humor at least you guys thought it
was funny and then and also be kind at
the end so that’s one example next stand
your ground sometimes it’s ok to
disagree just cause word of caution
remember if they’re baiting you they may
just be intentionally trying to get a
rise out of you but sometimes you just
need to say no this is how I feel this
is another female meteorologist she
actually posted this in our group like I
was talking about earlier and it was
only a few weeks ago I said hey can I
share this my TED talk she said sure so
someone said please burn that dress you
wore this morning she said sorry I loved
this dress too much good for her and
they wrote back now I feel like a donkey
sorry my boss is here and I doubted that
it even got read have a great Sunday
thank you for doing the weather report
so sometimes you just have to show that
we are real people so that other people
hopefully will remember this person will
remember next time maybe I shouldn’t
write something so mean because they’ll
actually read it and I’ll feel bad for
me I have one thing that I maybe brush
about and I almost think of it as an
educational or PSA moment yeah
so my 2 year anniversary is coming up
and here in Oklahoma I should have a
baby by now ok but but I get bothered
because yes I like to eat right and I do
like working out but some days I ate a
burrito
my stomach pooches out the next day
maybe I didn’t wear Spanx
maybe maybe I’m wearing a flowy dress
well that doesn’t make me pregnant
so it does drive me bonkers and on a
personal level I have come home to my
husband crying before because I’m just
like what can I do I’m not gonna starve
myself like and and I I do take that
personally and I do try and step back
and think all right these people are
just hopeful for good news and they are
not necessarily trying to say something
about my weight so Emily are you
expecting you’ve got a little bump dot
dot dot question mark so is it good
start to your Monday when you get this
no just gained a few pounds at Christmas
honestly my reproductive parts are none
of your business
thanks for watching well excuse me and
then this lady sub sin I don’t know this
person Kay Johnson wait okay yay and
amen Emily way to go just because you
were out there and in front of us every
day doesn’t mean that we should be privy
to your private personal information
keep up the good work so that was
awesome for her another Lydia I just
asked dang don’t get your driver’s I
think drawers upset shoot man i watch
channel 9
burn so and I haven’t been always this
harsh I’ve actually done plenty of post
before Jennifer Anderson and a great
post huffington a huffington post where
she had this article saying you know
it’s not our place to ask other people i
my i had a lady come up to me in the gym
and she said hey my friend loves every
time you write back because she’s had
multiple miscarriages and it’s
heartbreaking when someone asks her if
she’s pregnant or my best friend i was
with her this summer after she at 12
weeks had a miscarriage and i can’t
imagine how devastating would be for
someone to say oh look at your tummy do
you do you have you have a baby bump you
have a baby there i mean you don’t know
someone’s situation maybe someone really
is praying and hoping for a baby and
trying and then you ask what are you
gonna have your kid next that’s
devastating as well alright so next Bach
or report this talk is not about it’s
about trolls but it’s not about hate
speech or inappropriate activity bullies
that should not be tolerated my coworker
Ali Meyer and good friend she did a
controversial story a few years back and
someone actually put this online it’s a
video game kind of image with her face
everywhere and a gun that’s terrifying
that should be reported to the police
immediately
and what’s so sad I find look at that it
was liked 34 times and retweeted six
times I don’t know how someone has it in
them to do something like that
finally empathize and learn so let’s go
back to Bradley I know it’s funny right
so I thought it was funny I posted on my
Instagram I kept his name out but I
posted cuz sometimes I just want friends
and other people to know that people do
this and I think it’s kind of funny and
people found him the comment on Facebook
and then started trolling him back and
then he started trolling back he kept
fighting normally they back down but he
kept fighting they kept going and then I
got to the point where he turned around
and begged me he said I’m sorry Emily
but
getting threats please take the post
down and I was like you posted it but
and then I had an email the next day
from someone who said Emily I’m sure
you’re a great person I loved watching
you but you need to know that this
person has been bullied his entire life
he has learning disabilities and a few
years ago he talked about taking his
life and that made me realize whoa that
you know even the trolls are real people
and we need to think about where they’re
coming from sometimes and I found that
now thinking that way has spilled over
into my day-to-day life and then if
something somebody does something mean
or rude I try and think you know what
they’re having a bad day or who knows
where they’re coming from so hopefully
that will help you as well but it helps
to learn from people and have empathy
for even the trolls as well finally are
you a troll I need you to search deep
down in your soul yeah I said about a
third of Americans in that study there’s
1 billion people on Facebook that would
be 300 million people who have trolled
before out there if that’s the stat if
it relate so what’s what my simple
statement is for you if you wouldn’t say
something to someone in person
don’t say it online oftentimes we use a
screen a phone screen a computer screen
of the guys but there are real people
behind that and if you have an issue
with someone why don’t you direct
message them instead of putting it out
for the world to see and say it in a
nice way and finally I watched a TED
talk about the power of positivity and I
loved this idea of every day
post something nice to someone else
online and I would encourage everyone
here to do this challenge in the month
of February every day let’s try and post
something nice to someone else it could
be a stranger it could be a business it
could be a friend every day so we can
spread kindness and positivity
use the hashtag be kind so don’t be a
troll don’t feed the trolls and hashtag
be kind thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: