INTERNET TROLLING IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES: A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT VICTIMIZATION

Internet trolls, often equated with online harassment, have gained public notoriety of late. As a result, this preliminary study was undertaken to explore the extent of trolling victimization of undergraduate business students, those that will be responsible for business communication in the future. Findings suggest that although there are five primary social networking sites utilized by students, nearly half of students had been trolled within the past six months and each student was trolled more than one time per month. Twitter users accounted for the largest percentage of students that were trolled while Snapchat and Instagram users had the highest incidence per victim. There were, however, mixed results with regard to the relationship between online social media usage time and trolling. Results imply that proactive and reactive measures may need to be implemented to minimize activity and assist victims in adequately dealing with the pressures and negative issues such as depression that may be associated with being trolled.