Okay, armchair psychologists...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I occasionally read and post to a board that deals with pregnancy and parenting. It is much slower than this one, with fewer active members, but, even so, there is something that has come up more than once. Under the pregnancy topic, from time to time, there will be a tearful plea for advice from a young girl who is accidentally pregnant and terrified at the prospect of having a child at her time of life, etc., etc., etc. All very affecting.

EXCEPT: More than once (and I’ve only been on the board for about a year) these “poor girls” have been obvious fakes. You know the signs: Overdone bad spelling and grammar. Piling on the pathos.

What gives with this? What is the psychological motivation behind this particular kind of troll? Who do you suppose they are really?

I haven’t called one out–I know I would be shouted down as a heartless cynic since that particular board sometimes tends toward a high glurge factor. But I thought I would throw out the question for all you other heartless cynics.

2

  1. Feeling of importance. You come to a board and get welcomed, makes you feel pretty special.

  2. Wanting to laugh at other people. I’ve known people who went into a room and were like “I have three toes and burn scars over half my body.” Great way to get sympathy. Note that I haven’t done it myself.

  3. make people look like fools . . . similar to 2 but a bit different.

3

WAG – Maybe it’s someone who is pro-life trying to smoke out whether such “lost souls” will be steered to particular clinics or offered particular services, so as to attack the clinic or service provider later? How’s that for cynical.

4

It’s frightening, but it seems that one type of person more pathetic than a young pregnant teenager would be someone who poses as one to get attention and sympathy.

There is, of course, a horrendous amount of “role-playing” that takes place on the internet. My guess is that the perpetrator is only interested in getting reactions from other people – he/she doesn’t care much what the reactions are, just that they are new and different. Posing as a nubile, bi-curious teenager has lost its thrill so it’s on to a new role to get new reactions.

I wonder what’s next – trolling the SDMB? No, no one would stoop that low!