When I receive nasty/mean comments on social media, I either block them or ignore them (based on the degree of their nastiness).
Rarely, though, I have started calling out to such people, by responding to their comments publicly. I do it on purpose so that any troll getting inspired by them knows that they may be next, so they take their chances carefully.
What has happened as a result is that some of them write back with “I’m sorry if this hurt you.”
Bhai, tu mera koi na hoke bhi kuch nahi laage. Why in the world will I be affected by your comment? I do not even remember their names! However, psychologically speaking, it does make a difference to the ones who do nasty things, because it is someone else calling their bad thing out, and that is a self-realisation moment. In an eternity someone chose to “see” them and that was enough for them to transform. Funny yet true.
That said, nastiness rarely defines someone who’s being called nasty. It defines the one projecting nastiness, just like other beautiful things.
