Tech Trolls: Fake Videos And Online Pranks Continue To Fool The Tech-Naive

Lately, the term “trolling” has become somewhat of a catchall for wider, inflammatory behavior in its modern usage. In this article, however, trolling refers to the classical definition of a general online prank. Playing tricks on web-goers is nothing new, and has permeated into nearly every part of the modern web. Technology, of course, is no exception.

Last week, YouTuber Max Holt published a video showcasing a unique project, reportedly pushing the limits of the Windows Task Manager. The clip featured the Task Manager of an alleged 896-core Windows computer, with each CPU core represented as a rectangle in a 56-by-32 grid to emulate the pixels of a screen. These “pixels” worked together for the common goal of playing the 1993 classic, Doom. Max Holt is no stranger to this sort of project, as his YouTube channel boasts several variants of the concept, including a Task Manager rendition of the Pokemon theme.

These videos are, of course, totally fake. As pointed out under the Reddit comment section where Holt’s video was reposted, there are numerous inconsistencies in the clip, most notably that the Task Manager introduces a scroll bar at a certain number of cores, in addition to the fact that it simply does not “render” at that “framerate” (the Windows Task Manager polls at most twice per second).

Despite the video being fake, it’s garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, and became a modest hit on Reddit and Twitter. This embellishment of technical truth is nothing new, though, and this sort of “tech trolling” has its place in the history of the web. These practical jokes typically employ just enough of a kernel of truth for many to find believable, allowing our more “tech-naive” users to fall prey to their foolery.

Classic Examples of Tech Trolling

Numerous classic examples, such as Alt+F4 or Delete System32, have tricked victims into closing important applications at best and destroying their operating systems at worst over the years. More modern examples, such as the supposed iPhone Wave feature, caused people to destroy their valuable smartphones and other electronics.

In the past, it has proven to be rather easy to trick people into an array of technical mishaps. While it’s somewhat more difficult in the modern age – the average person has slightly greater technical knowledge than the average person did over a decade ago – it still has its place on the web and continues to catch gullible victims, typically in more subtle ways than previous attempts.

Harmless Tech Trolling

While some tech trolls intend to cause discord – sometimes, even damage – many of these practical jokes are ultimately harmless. In Holt’s Task Manager example, duping people into believing that a technological anomaly is even possible will likely do little to no real harm. After all, haven’t we all sarcastically convinced a friend of ours of some silly, nonsensical piece of trivia and then “forget” to correct them afterward?

An early inspiration for this harmless sort of tech trolling on the web, the YouTube channel Infinite Solutions has managed to “help” many people with various IT solutions. From recharging your batteries by putting them end-to-end to boosting your wireless signal with a salad bowl and tinfoil, each example provided just enough technical truth and honesty to convince viewers that the solutions are trustworthy. Despite this, the dislike bar on these videos suggests that, on average, people aren’t happy about being duped. Channels like this also share many similarities to Troll Science memes, which depict various experiments that are based on a faulty understanding of scientific concepts to intentionally mislead unsuspecting users.

Inspired by Infinite Solutions, YouTuber Vexal uploaded a video implying that your toasters could be modded to accommodate for gaming, which, of course, ended with him playing Doom on a collection of toasters. The video was fake, of course, but that never stopped thousands or more from being briefly (or permanently) hoodwinked.

Tech trolling, in this sense, is essentially an online, tech-centric and modern example of the classic “practical joke,” and numerous explanations exist for our drive to prank. While the moral element of practical jokes is somewhat disputed – a 2007 study in the Review of General Psychology showed that, while the pranksters themselves find the jokes enjoyable, the prankees do not – duping gullible web-goers is a staple of the modern web … and isn’t set to change anytime soon.

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