Hiding in the momo army, being the last free soul on the Internet

Once upon a time, we were all drops of water that didn’t want to be found on the Internet, and mysterious netizens who didn’t want to reveal their names. Now, a group of “anonymous momo army” formed spontaneously by countless netizens has become active on the Internet. What kind of network phenomenon is this? Let’s take a look at it in this article.

Who is momo? Why do so many people use pink dinosaur as their avatar?

When surfing the Internet, many friends must have had similar doubts.

In the comment section, countless "momos" who look identical on the surface are discussing heatedly, sometimes even arguing so fiercely that one would suspect that one is seeing things. But when you click on their avatars to enter their homepages, you find that they are completely different users.

(“momo” on Xiaohongshu)

In fact, this is an "anonymous army" formed spontaneously by countless netizens. They put on the same pink dinosaur head and changed their name to "momo". By hiding under the same skin, netizens have achieved the effect of being difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake.

If you choose to be a momo, you don’t have to worry about being recognized by netizens because of a casual comment, and you don’t have to worry about being easily recognized by acquaintances in real life.

(Reasons why netizens choose to become "momo")

In the ocean of the Internet, they protect each other, share responsibilities, and "do one thing for one hundred times the responsibility", trying not to leave a trace of a wave while surfing.

Momos are striving to be the last free souls on the Internet.

01 “Anonymous Legion”: Soul fragments with nowhere to go

The momo army is not the first anonymous army on the Internet. Long before momo appeared, Douban had already had collective nicknames such as "jianghu liar" and "deregistered".

(“Charlatan” on Douban)

There is no twisted story behind the birth of momo, nor is there any meaningful connotation. It is just a group of people who are too lazy to change their initial nicknames and profile pictures. When they use WeChat to log in to social accounts such as Douban and Xiaohongshu, they are given the default code and image by the platform.

As more and more people choose to change their nicknames to "momo" and their profile pictures to pink little dinosaurs, many incidents of misidentification have occurred, and netizens have sensed the scent of "prank".

(Netizens who mistook “momo”)

In addition to entertainment, "momos" gradually discovered that when they expressed opinions that were different from the mainstream, they no longer felt timid about fighting alone. Hiding under the same group mask, it seemed as if there were thousands of "momos" and "charlatans" behind them, sharing the pressure.

At the same time, hiding under the identity of "momo", they no longer need to consider their words when speaking passionately on the Internet, and can express themselves more fearlessly. After all, once they leave the comment area, they are just a small drop in the ocean of momo that is hard to find.

(Comment from an unnamed "momo")

Once upon a time, on the Internet, we were all drops of water that did not want to be found, and mysterious netizens who did not want to reveal their names.

In the past, social media undoubtedly provided us with a virtual space to express private emotions. We role-play on different social platforms, as if carefully placing our personalities in different rooms.

Social media has unknowingly become an extension of young people's self, a part of the soul fragments that merge into a complete self. In different social media, young people's self-presentation also varies accordingly.

(Netizens on different platforms)

According to the different attributes of social platforms, young people classify and place their "Horcruxes" like Voldemort: In strong relationship circles such as WeChat, it may be my sunny daily life; Weibo is an occasional dark corner; Xiaohongshu is a space for uninterrupted madness.

In reality, I try my best to show the "public self" that is praised by society, but sometimes I also need a virtual space to accommodate the "private self" hidden in my heart.

However, the powerful search function of the Internet makes it impossible for us who want to escape from the real world to hide. As long as we want, our friends in the real world can find our "real self" through countless clues that we don't want to show on the Internet.

It is obviously very easy to find a person's social media account. Start with personal characteristics and search for easily exposed information such as his birthday, school, and location. If you can't find it, then slowly explore his social circle and you will always be able to find clues.

(Personal presentation on different social media)

In this panopticon, we seem to be “streaking” in public. The cynical complaints on Weibo and the occasional smug pride on Zhihu are all made public and put on the rooftop for everyone to see.

At this time, the invisibility cloak brought by Momo has a fatal temptation to us.

02 “Electronic Cockroach”: Hiding the Virtual Self

People who hate momo call this group "electronic cockroaches". They are huge in number, their whereabouts are uncertain, and they reproduce endlessly in dark corners.

But for Momo, being able to "live in a corner" in digital surveillance is already a blessing.

“Living in this era, each of us is being monitored; each of us is also Big Brother. It’s just that being monitored doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable; and monitoring others doesn’t make us uncomfortable either.”

In George Orwell's "1984", the protagonist was under constant surveillance by Big Brother; now each of us can easily spy on other people's privacy, and at the same time our privacy is also exposed.

("Electronic Cockroach")

The rapid development of big data and the popularization of mobile Internet have made the boundary between the real world and the virtual world increasingly blurred, and the conflict between digital surveillance and personal freedom has escalated.

In the digital age, we are facing an ethical dilemma of a sharp decline in private space and limited free will. Invisible digital eyes are collecting our life trajectories extensively and secretly. In this case, the virtual space that we think is private can even be invaded silently.

For example, on Weibo, we are always at risk of being "spying" - that is, having our homepage spied on by others while we are browsing privately.

(Netizens complaining about "eye rape")

This kind of invasion may very likely lead to "social death".

In Douban’s “Social Death” group, one can often see posts such as “Weibo account exposed”, “Little Red Book collection read by relatives and friends”, and “ID accidentally dropped”.

When the soul is divided into different fragments and stored in different cyberspaces, no one can guarantee that it will not be suspended or misunderstood in a state of "contextual dissolution".

“If I have only ten minutes left in my life, I will use them to format my social media accounts.” In order to protect the little privacy we have left, we choose not to reveal our Weibo IDs and choose to make our Moments visible for only three days.

(Comments from netizens)

However, the desire to express and share has nowhere to go, but it is still stirring.

In order to prevent the invasion of the real world and the groundless criticism and nitpicking from others, netizens choose to change their names to momo, and by hiding in the momo army, they give themselves a sense of privacy and security.

After Chen Feiyu's studio sued Douban user "momo", countless momos jumped out and declared, "I am the leader of this group of people, and I declare that I am responsible for all the bad things they have done", using a joking tone to hide momo's identity. This sense of security of "one mo doing the work of a billion mos" has led more people to choose to join the momo family.

(“Momo” who stood up)

Sometimes, people would rather choose to be an "electronic cockroach" that catches ten with a slipper than face the uncertainty of being "publicly executed."

Does this mean that we are increasingly lacking in security regarding privacy protection and our fear of having our private emotions put on trial in the public domain is growing?

03 “Customized momo”: How can public and private coexist?

Interestingly, momo is not willing to be just a stereotyped water drop. Their pursuit of anonymity and creativity is achieved through the coordination of the Internet. Netizens customize their own unique momo avatars by changing the momo avatars and giving them their own personalized characteristics.

Many people have evolved the original Momo into Lazy Sheep Mo, Empresses in the Palace Mo, and SpongeBob SquarePants Mo through secondary creation, creating a collective universe belonging to Momo.

(SpongeBob SquarePants "momo")

Following Momo, "Happy Horse", "Nervous Frog" and "Abai", who are also WeChat automatic login nicknames, also joined the collective mask carnival.

Behind the seemingly novel and interesting, it also reveals the netizens' wish for individuality and freedom. Choosing to become momo may be a novel temptation to follow the trend, but it is more of a helpless act of self-protection in today's increasingly stringent public sphere.

In the transparent Internet environment, every trace you leave may become evidence of future condemnation.

Nowadays, not only celebrities face the possibility of being exposed, but ordinary people also need to be vigilant against the danger of being exposed.

(Preventing posts from being “human flesh searched”)

Sometimes, being forgotten has even become a rare privilege. What stands between us and our “black history” and “browsing traces” is technology, capital, and human nature… In this era where everyone searches, our inner world may be taken out and “whipped” at any time.

When the boundaries between public and private, online and offline are broken, we are likely to face criticism from public morality and real-life discussions.

It is not surprising that silence becomes a prominent characteristic of some Internet users.

Out of concern for the leakage of personal privacy, many people show strong social fatigue and resist leaving real traces on the Internet. Terms such as "lurking" and "muddling" have emerged.

("The Science of Confusion")

Admittedly, the protection of the private sphere by the momo army has more psychological effect than practical benefit. A thin layer of avatars is not enough to resist the invasion of "digital life".

But becoming momo is also an interesting challenge to the harsh Internet language environment. They call themselves "cute and charming decent characters" and "outlaws traveling through the galaxy". They dare to express their different opinions and say no to the spiral of silence.

At the same time, they are also using different kinds of "custom momos" to quietly release their own personalities and wave an olive branch of inclusiveness to the Internet.

What little momos expect is respect for privacy and redemption of their own space.

(Picture from the Internet)

Author: Frog Diary

Source: WeChat public account "Zhizhu.com (ID: covricuc)"