Disruptive online communication: How asymmetric trolling-like response strategies steer conversation off the track

Internet trolling, a form of antisocial online behavior, is a serious problem plaguing social media. Skillful trolls can lure entire communities into degenerative and polarized discussions that continue endlessly. From analysis of data gathered in accordance with established classifications of trolling-like behavior, the paper presents a conversation analysis of trolling-like interaction strategies that disrupt online discussions. The authors argue that troll-like users exploit other users’ desire for common grounding – i.e., joint maintenance of mutual understanding and seeking of conversational closure – by responding asymmetrically. Their responses to others deviate from expectations for typical paired actions in turn-taking. These asymmetries, described through examples of three such behaviors – ignoring, mismatching, and challenging – lead to dissatisfactory interactions, in that they subvert other users’ desire for clarification and explanation of contra-normative social behavior. By avoiding clarifications, troll-like users easily capture unsuspecting users’ attention and manage to prolong futile conversations interminably. Through the analysis, the paper connects trolling-like asymmetric response strategies with concrete data and addresses the implications of this nonconformist behavior for common grounding in social-media venues.

Woman and Child: The Penitentiary Aspect

The article analyzes the legal and medical significance of the child's living together with his mother in the Children's Houses of the penitentiary system. Materials for the study were the author's own observations, the materials of the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment (FSEP) of Russia reports on medical care for women and children over the period of five years; the data obtained as a result of targeted inquiries to the Children's Houses of the penitentiary system. The article generalizes the experience of the Children's House activities of the penitentiary system in this direction. It shows the positive effect of joint maintenance, first of all, in terms of the breastfeeding rates. Natural and mixed feeding constituted 67 % in the Children's Houses, including 85 % in the Children's Houses with joint stay of the newborns, and 42 % in other Children's Houses, which is statistically lower. In the Children's Houses with the expanded co-residence department, the primary morbidity of children was 1678 ‰, while in the comparison group - 2015 ‰, which is significantly higher. According to the primary incidence rate, there was a decrease in the pool of respiratory diseases from 1000 to 870 per 1000 children, thanks to placing into operation of the joint co-residence hostel for mother and child. The co-residence of the mother, convicted to imprisonment, and the newborn will contribute to the childs physical, neuropsychic development, its harmonious growth, as well as to manifesting the maternity feelings, which can be an important factor of the resocialization of the convicted person. The author propose to introduce a normative compulsory co-residence of mother and child in the Children's Houses of the penitentiary system.