Internet Trolls? They Go With the Territory

We were very pleased to have Richard Reeve, the Head of School at Allynwood, Hancock, NY, join us today on The Woodbury Report with host Lon Woodbury. Richard was named Head of School in 2013 after serving as Development Director and Executive Director of The Family Foundation, Inc. since 2007. Currently, Richard is a candidate at the CG Jung Institute of New York where he is in his last phase of training to become a psychoanalyst.

What exactly does a "troll" do and how in the world does this term have anything to do with our show? Particularly, we are not talking about the ugly, mythical cave dweller of folklore, but rather a 21st century person who likes to start arguments, or post inflammatory messages in an online community like a chat room, a forum or a blog. Perhaps by accident or deliberate, these trolls provoke readers into an "emotional response" or even take part in online harassment. Specifically today, Richard and Lon discussed the reality of negative messaging on the internet regarding therapeutic residential programs for at-risk teens, like the campaign of a group of Allynwood alumni who are actively engaged in activism against the school that is currently going on, and the position taken by the school to acknowledge and respond to the negative messaging. When Congressman Miller pushed to regulate the private, parent choice schools and programs back in 2006, and he brought in former students and alumni to support this cause that is when the internet gained traction. Also in this time period, activists against these kinds of programs and others with their own political agendas joined in (jumping on the bandwagon) and were and are very vocal- voicing some very wounding statements that are negative and nasty. "Clearly, these statements are being made by others who have never been to our program, but join these causes�that just goes with the territory. The true activists are trying to moderate these groups because they are actually hurting their cause." In agreement. Lon shared "all these teens saying this stuff are not what they seem�the problem with the Internet is you never know who you are talking to."

"Our industry is rather young and has radically transformed over the past 30-40 years. There is a maturing of the industry and they see that some of the treatments and processes are no longer helpful. We are recognizing the needs of youth and what they need. We have benefited from this negative internet messaging, we have learned to listen to the criticism, show sensitivity to those who went to the program and came out with disappointments or not getting what they needed. We also learned we cannot participate in the political dialog�it is out of our scope of concern and it is not our place to argue it down- Tit for Tat and our staff have specific guidelines and are instructed not to engage with the negative dialect�we learned that lesson early on. We want to send a positive digital message of who we are and what we do, we are very forthright. Based on our alumni's concerns, we have also re-structured Allynwood to align with the need for more/better transition skills and have therefore created independent living, have aligned with the community colleges to help and have incorporated the need for transition into the beginning of our programs- with the goal of successful transitioning."

Rich did share personally on the impact this kind of negative messaging has had on some - "what upsets me is the effort put into labeling parents who have struggled and have made the decision to enroll their child in a program, and then are digitally victimized and labeled as "bad parents" for doing so. I am also saddened by the group of people we never get to meet because of this issue."

To contact Richard Reeve:
607-637-8200
Richard.reeve10@gmail.com
Richard.reeve@allynwood.org
www.allynwood.org

Listen to the full interview here: Internet Trolls? They Go With the Territory
Also available in Podcast

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