Dark Side of the Net: Twitter Trolls

Yesterday evening a huge portion of what I could see on my own Twitter feed was trolling. And sometimes this kind of behaviour makes me feel like the world is a bit darker than I give it credit for. Let me preface this with saying that I like to believe that I am one of the first to laugh at a joke, I believe there is fun to be poked at life, I'm not a member of the outragerrati who get upset at every single thing (e.g. the man working at my local Spar doesn't smile at me while scanning my basket SHOCK AND OUTRAGE) and I am wary of taking offence on behalf of others unless I believe it to warranted. I am an empath but can make the distinction between genuine concern and those who like to use the lives of others to create drama and notoriety in their own. But last night it seemed like the largest of all the trolls had popped out from under bridges and were in full vile swing. One of Ireland's favourite fashion bloggers, Leanne Woodfull, deleted her Twitter account after a trolling incident, while professional troll, Katie Hopkins, outdid herself last night while watching the first episode of 'I'm a Celebrity'. Irish outlets are obviously focusing on the below posts regarding Nadia Forde, but they weren't the worst things spilling from Katie's tapping talons. Yes, Nadia didn't get the worst of the bile. Hopkins had the following grimness for former Playboy Bunny Kendra Wilkinson:

And, predictably, Katie was beyond bilious when it came to Gemma Collins from TOWIE:

And so I logged off and wondered if all this instantaneous communication is really all great. Have we reached critical troll mass and is this something that needs to be on the school curriculum now - how to have a sense of humour on social media without wading in the world of slander and abuse? Is that line something intuitive or do we rely too much on the moral compass of others? I'd love to hear what you think.