Blank avatar, blank name: protecting privacy and reducing presence—young people practice "internet invisibility"

Transparent avatars become a new social code?

Standard avatars and uniform nicknames are gradually taking over young people's social media accounts. The "momo" army is growing in scale and continuing to expand.

It is understood that "momo" is a little pink dinosaur whose full name is "Momo Long momo," belonging to WeChat's original sticker pack series IP. It now mostly refers to people who want to be invisible on the internet; they give up personalized avatars and IDs to become individuals hidden within a vast crowd and hard to distinguish. As the topic "It seems calling yourself momo no longer keeps you invisible" trended, how will young people who can no longer stay low-key proceed?

"Momo is not one person": default avatars gradually gain scale

"At first I thought momo was one person, and only later realized it was a huge group of people." Graduate student Zhao said that in the comment section of a social media platform, they noticed many people using the same avatar and the same nickname. Out of curiosity, they looked it up and found that momo is a very large group, all like invisible people.

Momo's full name is "Momo Long momo," and at first it was merely default information automatically generated after a new user registered an account.

When users authorize WeChat login on certain social media platforms, if they choose to skip setting a personalized avatar and nickname, the system provides several default avatars and nicknames to choose from, such as A Lü POPO, A Bai KIKI, Huanle Ma HAPPY, and so on. Because of its cute and endearing image, momo became the choice of most anonymous users.

Later, some netizens did not change their names, so the first generation of momo groups on the internet began to emerge.

As the original momos gradually became active in social networks, encounters between momos became more frequent, and they spontaneously formed groups, growing larger like a snowball.

Momos appearing everywhere attract increasing attention. On social platforms, there are no fewer than a hundred topics related to momo, with total views exceeding 500 million.

Young people's fondness for using momo has become a trend.

Like putting on an "invisibility cloak": surfing without exposing yourself

Twenty-year-old Xiao Pan actively joined momo half a year ago. She usually likes to share her personal life on the internet: daily reading of literature, beautiful scenery photos, fitness and running, and so on.

"Some everyday details easily reveal specific information about me. I don't want my classmates around me to find out, and I'm even more afraid they'll make a big deal out of what I post." Thus, momo—lacking personal characteristics and vast in number—became Xiao Pan's "invisibility cloak" for protecting personal information.

"I've come across other people's accounts, so others can certainly come across mine. I have a classmate who does lion dancing, and the post I came across happened to be that lion dance segment I had seen—I recognized her at a glance." Zhao said that by hiding themselves under momo, even if classmates come across videos they post, there is no need to worry about being recognized.

She hopes her account can become a private space belonging only to herself. "Momo is like a tree hollow; I hide inside it, and I can say the things I normally wouldn't dare say to people around me—it's much freer."

After joining the momo army, Zhao became more willing to speak online. "Before, speaking under my own avatar still carried some pressure. After becoming momo, sometimes I secretly complain that my advisor holds group meetings too frequently; as long as I don't mention sensitive words, I don't worry that classmates will secretly tell the teacher."

The reason Xiao Pan is so careful and cautious online is that once, while browsing, she accidentally came across a netizen "exposing" someone in the comment section. Merely because that netizen disagreed with a certain comment, the person posted the other's nickname and avatar publicly, prompting other netizens to dox the exposed user's account and flock to it to condemn them.

At the time, Xiao Pan thought, "If I switched to some initial default uniform user avatar, I wouldn't have to worry about being doxxed or exposed." To avoid the possibility of being cyberbullied in the future, Xiao Pan specifically sought out the most standard and most widely used momo pink dinosaur avatar. "Now there are also many color-changed and decorated momos, but I feel none of them are safe enough. I want an avatar completely devoid of any personal touch."

Xiao Pan feels that netizens who choose to "hide" with momo may all be like her—somewhat self-contradictory. "If you really don't want to be disturbed, then don't post anything at all. The contradiction is that on one hand they don't want others to know their true face, and on the other hand they want to post something to discuss with people in the same situation."

"One momo acts, ten thousand momos bear it": internet nobodies have their troubles too

In the momo army, there are almost no bloggers with huge follower counts, and few absolute internet lurkers.

Momos active on the internet not only like to post and share themselves, but also like to "hop around" in others' comment sections.

"If it's few, I'll look at four or five posts; if more, seven or eight, and then I'll post a comment." Xiao Liu once received official data feedback due to frequent commenting, showing that she posted 42 comments in a week, received 166 likes and replies in total, and surpassed 99% of commenters. The platform even gave her a traffic coupon as "encouragement."

Gan Gan believes that commenting under a personalized avatar makes you remembered. "If your post-viewing overlaps heavily with others, you'll be very recognizable, but if you're momo, others can't know which momo is you."

Some netizens also think that using momo to "hide" is superfluous. "As long as you're a nobody on the internet, naturally no one will find you."

A Beijing Youth Daily reporter found that many platforms make options such as "recommend to people you may know" the default when users log in. Under algorithmic recommendation, Xiao Liu once came across a post from an acquaintance. "The like count wasn't high, and it wasn't the type I usually look at. I don't know how it got pushed to me—it felt very dangerous." Precisely because of this, she chose to join momo.

Xiao Pan also uses this method to protect herself. She mentioned that many social media platforms push you to strangers as a "person you may know," and the basis for the push may be the personalized avatar you chose. If it is set to momo, there is less risk in this regard.

The vast number of momos no longer have many scruples; they speak more boldly and even bring the hostility of daily life into comment sections. If someone holds a different opinion, they may be "besieged" by a group of momos. Even if one wants to catch the "instigator," it is difficult to identify them, causing other innocent momos to suffer as well.

"One momo acts, ten thousand momos bear it." Using a uniform avatar and nickname and enjoying great freedom of comment also means losing identity monitoring.

The "Yinmen" with not even an avatar: minimizing presence to the utmost

"Momo's reputation is getting worse and worse. I just want to be an internet nobody and don't want to bear those bad names." Twenty-two-year-old Jingjing chose to move from momo to "Yinmen."

If momo still has color and leaves traces on the internet, "Yinmen" is a completely transparent existence that can achieve total concealment: blank avatars and blank nicknames blend into the background, leaving only comments visible.

"When I was still momo, for a period my private messages would inexplicably receive insults." Jingjing thought that at the time, other momos must have been speaking recklessly in someone's comment section, and others could not identify exactly which momo it was, so she got caught in the crossfire.

A Beijing Youth Daily reporter observed that because some momos speak casually, even attacking others verbally, relying on anonymity, other momos are wrongly complained about, blocked, and privately messaged with abuse by all kinds of unrelated people...

Jingjing said that in fact momo cannot completely conceal the self; the avatar and nickname that still exist present a certain personality.

In the course of gradual evolution, the pink dinosaur has appeared in various styles—colorful, wearing glasses, upside down, wearing gold chains, and so on. Quite a few momos changed color schemes and accessories, highlighting private customization within the collective.

"Quit momo, join 'Yinmen'—I don't believe anyone can still find me." A few days ago, Xiao Pan quit the momo army she had joined half a year earlier and officially became a member of "Yinmen."

A Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that "Yinmen" is relatively difficult to set up; blank nicknames can only be copied and pasted from comment sections, and they contain many special symbols and space keys. However, precisely because it is difficult to set up, it is harder than momo to search for the person.

Xiao Pan said that when she posted before, many netizens would click into her homepage and leave comments under her posts. But she actually did not want others to click into her homepage, so she switched to "Yinmen."

"This way, others won't easily notice my avatar, and the blank nickname blends into the background. Even if someone wants to enter, it's hard to click into the homepage." Xiao Pan said.

During the day it can still be disguised, but "Yinmen" reveals its true form under the phone's "dark mode," so various forms of "Yinmen"—all black, half black and half white, semi-hidden, and others—have appeared on the internet.

Voices

Why do young people pursue a separation of "body and mind"?

In the early 21st century, unlike the uniform momo, in the budding era of social software, what young people urgently needed was a symbol that showed the self.

Young men and women chose avatars from limited options to highlight themselves: the purple-haired Qingwu Feiyang, the cotton candy with straight bangs, the lone walker in sunglasses, the wind-chasing youth with brown long bangs, and so on became popular on the internet.

At that time, netizens all had a cartoon avatar, and no one knew what kind of person was behind the avatar.

Around 2010, social software began allowing custom avatars. Young people no longer stuck to classic avatars to express personality, replacing them with various fresh stickers, cute pets, and idol images: the classic smiling sky avatar, the non-mainstream avatar with strong filters and melancholy captions, the chuunibyou anime manga avatar, the cool and swaggering internet handsome guy or pretty girl avatar...

Afterward, personalized avatars, personalized spaces, personalized signatures... being unconventional and different became what netizens pursued.

During interviews, a Beijing Youth Daily reporter found that many young netizens who join momo nowadays are just joining in for the fun of the moment and will switch to something else after a while.

"This spirit is not limited to avatars. Young people constantly change wallpapers, constantly adjust fonts and various screensaver settings, but once the novelty and honeymoon period pass, everyone's freshness toward various new things on the internet gradually fades." Zeng Xin, assistant researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the rise of momo is somewhat similar to the early situation of netizens choosing avatars from limited options.

Zeng Xin further explained that users can freely choose from limited options, which is actually a kind of return. Young people actively chose a transitional zone between complete selfhood and complete invisibility. However, the difference between today's situation and early social software is the change in media affordances: people have more choices, and although there are clearly many choices, they chose a way to hide themselves.

"Joining momo is also young people's prevention of possible cyberbullying, a protection of their sense of security in speaking, and a way to avoid the risk of secondary dissemination." Zeng Xin also believes that the young people who initially chose to join momo had a certain desire to express themselves or to pursue the right to speak on certain events, but they did not want to fall into the risk of being searched, so they went further and became "Yinmen" with not even an avatar.

In her view, young people leaving momo for Yinmen may be because momo was not enough to give them full freedom of expression, while a fully invisible state gives them more casualness. "For example, on the internet they can choose to stand by or not participate, but this does not prevent them, when encountering a topic they are very interested in, from also discussing, cheering, or expressing opinions."

"I have seen a situation around me: a teacher was teaching a class for the first time, and a student found his social media account by searching his nickname. When one's private attributes are exposed during work hours, there is a very awkward feeling." Zeng Xin said that many people are on the internet for entertainment and leisure, and their aim is not necessarily to attract more followers. If at this time their entertainment identity is "seen through" by people who know their social identity, the psychological experience will not be very good.

"Invisibility" precisely allows the entertainment identity and social identity to be relatively separated, giving individuals maximum freedom to "surf."