"because of fake reports, forged recollections and warning that sent the internet into a frenzy, Momo was as real as she never was" -- Justine Courtenay-Huang
The Momo Challenge itself is horribly immoral, incredibly anxiety inducing, but also not real, as most people have come to know. A statue created by the artist Keisuke Aiso with the name “Mother Bird” made its place in the internet as a threat to kids lives. The work of art depicted a long-haired woman with inhumanly large eyes, an unsettling smile, and chicken-like body. Though a statue, and one that has since been destroyed, she has now become a known trope of fear that heavily comments on the ways create and interact with news. Despite being first displayed three years ago, both in the beginning of 2019 and Summer of 2018, because of fake reports, forged recollections and warning that sent the internet into a frenzy, Momo was as real as she never was.
Parents were quick to discover this so-called challenge which was presumably announced by an anonymous facebook post, stating that it was something adults should watch out for, given it was encouraging children to endanger their family members, and themselves, by horrific threats via videos, and messages. I, myself, recall hearing that it was forcing and scared kids into leaving gas stoves on overnight, inflicting self-harm, and committing suicide. In fact, this fear was where the challenge was really born.
Coming home to my twelve year old brother and ten year old friend worried in whispers about the Momo Challenge to look it up myself, I remember being struck by serious disgust and my own growing panic.
While it has recently been dubbed entirely fake and heavily fabricated, you cannot dismiss the very real distress it has caused -- leading entire schools to cut off students access to platforms that could contain such material, police stations and companies releasing official statements of warning, parents taking further measures of internet surveillance, as well a number of large news channels covering the topic. With the public’s involvement if marketed correctly, fake news is just as good as real. This in itself brings about a much larger question, how do we know what and when to trust?
Not only does our role as consumers heavily impact what is heard by the public, but it also directly changes the way people collectively react. Although the Momo Challenge itself never existed, posts proclaiming unreal events and news to be true allowed the stress to keep affecting people. In the time of such panic, many used this to their advantage, working to leech off of this very terror -- creating phone lines and releasing videos impersonating Momo, actively working to keep the worry created from something that was never real to begin with alive.
When you now look up the Momo Challenge, the first things that pops up is “Momo Challenge Hoax” followed by a brief description. Just over a month ago, doing the same thing would bring you an overwhelming influx of warnings covered by outstanding number of reliable sources. This serves as a statement on how quick news, in which we our rest our faith in, changes our perception, which changes our reality. With this, again we are led back to the question, how do we know what and when to trust? The answer -- it’s all very personal. Though fear is really what both inticed and spread the Momo Challenge, that’s not unfair, because it was thought to have posed harm to individuals. This could and should be an even bigger conversation about censorship, and the way in which we rely on news, but instead I leave you with a reminder that I hope will continue that itself. With the Momo Challenge alone it’s complicated given it’s not that what we followed was entirely unreliable (because the false instances followed by real hysteria later went on to be covered by what many would agree are rather dependable sources). Regarding this Challenge, among other things, it is not when or what we listen to, but how we do so. For those very reasons we must teach people to understand that with the internet comes both good and bad, and that ignorance isn’t always bliss if it gives a space for irrational worry to thrive.
Parents were quick to discover this so-called challenge which was presumably announced by an anonymous facebook post, stating that it was something adults should watch out for, given it was encouraging children to endanger their family members, and themselves, by horrific threats via videos, and messages. I, myself, recall hearing that it was forcing and scared kids into leaving gas stoves on overnight, inflicting self-harm, and committing suicide. In fact, this fear was where the challenge was really born.
Coming home to my twelve year old brother and ten year old friend worried in whispers about the Momo Challenge to look it up myself, I remember being struck by serious disgust and my own growing panic.
While it has recently been dubbed entirely fake and heavily fabricated, you cannot dismiss the very real distress it has caused -- leading entire schools to cut off students access to platforms that could contain such material, police stations and companies releasing official statements of warning, parents taking further measures of internet surveillance, as well a number of large news channels covering the topic. With the public’s involvement if marketed correctly, fake news is just as good as real. This in itself brings about a much larger question, how do we know what and when to trust?
Not only does our role as consumers heavily impact what is heard by the public, but it also directly changes the way people collectively react. Although the Momo Challenge itself never existed, posts proclaiming unreal events and news to be true allowed the stress to keep affecting people. In the time of such panic, many used this to their advantage, working to leech off of this very terror -- creating phone lines and releasing videos impersonating Momo, actively working to keep the worry created from something that was never real to begin with alive.
When you now look up the Momo Challenge, the first things that pops up is “Momo Challenge Hoax” followed by a brief description. Just over a month ago, doing the same thing would bring you an overwhelming influx of warnings covered by outstanding number of reliable sources. This serves as a statement on how quick news, in which we our rest our faith in, changes our perception, which changes our reality. With this, again we are led back to the question, how do we know what and when to trust? The answer -- it’s all very personal. Though fear is really what both inticed and spread the Momo Challenge, that’s not unfair, because it was thought to have posed harm to individuals. This could and should be an even bigger conversation about censorship, and the way in which we rely on news, but instead I leave you with a reminder that I hope will continue that itself. With the Momo Challenge alone it’s complicated given it’s not that what we followed was entirely unreliable (because the false instances followed by real hysteria later went on to be covered by what many would agree are rather dependable sources). Regarding this Challenge, among other things, it is not when or what we listen to, but how we do so. For those very reasons we must teach people to understand that with the internet comes both good and bad, and that ignorance isn’t always bliss if it gives a space for irrational worry to thrive.