Soooo, trolling! That means leaving negative comments on social media.

As you all saw, last week was the first time I decided to share a trolling experience I had when I posted a picture and was criticized for my “not so perfect boobs”.

NOT the first time I’ve gotten that kind of trolling, though.

And that’s really not unique for many of you too ….. In my survey, out of approximately 4,000 that responded, 78% of you have experienced online trolling.

I shared my experience to share that you are not alone. I am not immune to that kind of treatment on social media. It actually came up during a presentation I gave the week before on the topic of social media and mental health. I realized, wow, I’ve never really addressed this before because I honestly always just delete those comments or ignore them.

And the sad truth? I’m used to it. I had friends telling me, ugh you should NOT be used to it. I know, I know …. But dodo?

Trolling is a real thing these days and it’s just really sad.

76% of you ignore it, which makes sense, similar to my perspective this far.

But this actually sparked some GREAT conversations……

Is it even worth exposing trolls? Keep in mind, many of them probably use fake profiles, so they have nothing to lose. But even if not fake profiles, our community is so small - is it worth exposing them and creating further rift in our community? Is it worth giving them that energy and attention?

Or should we teach them a lesson?

I asked you all about exposing trolls, and 75 percent said YES, trolls should be exposed. But many said of course it depends on if it’s a fake profile or if it’s a real person.

Interesting. Some of you shared great resources. I will get into those in a later vlog, but one thought stood out to me. Trolls really are the ones that have the issue, not you, for a variety of different reasons. And the popular thought might be to ignore, but really, to ignore is to continue to give them the power. Now, with that being said - yes, you may choose to ignore the troll, BUT address the issues within the audience and pay close attention to how your audience responds. Sometimes it’s not worth responding to the troll in a way that will feed them. Pay attention to how people respond - those that choose to support you and uplift you.

Bottom line …. Yea, I want to recognize that trolling is a huge issue that many of us face. And yeah, of course, mean-spirited comments can hurt, so our feelings are valid. I’ll be sharing more thoughts later on how to deal with THAT, including my own experiences of dealing with this and still continuing to stay positive and practice self-love.