At the beginning of this blog post, I want to quote a line I really like from the self-media channel Stromcrew in one of their videos. When discussing AI’s ability to remove people from photos, they said: “In modern society, people leave so many traces of their existence online, but perhaps all it takes is a single command to an AI to erase those traces entirely. Of course, people exist in reality, but when we rely so heavily on the online world to record our lives, what will our existence become if those traces are all erased?”
The internet is developing so rapidly that people today have various ways to share their lives online—photos, audio, video, and even more realistic methods like VR. This also means that, in the eyes of people who don’t know us in real life, our image is almost entirely shaped by the content we post online. This is the digital identity we create for ourselves.
Let’s look at an example: Nikocado Avocado, perhaps the most famous mukbang influencer today. Viewers have witnessed his journey from being a vegan to eating meat, then gaining weight, acting erratically, and eventually losing weight—all because he documented everything in videos posted online.
There’s no doubt that his weight loss was a key moment that propelled him to further fame, but we’ll focus on the entire process of how he gradually gained followers step by step.
In the beginning, he was just an ordinary, quirky vegan, posting mukbang videos online that didn’t particularly stand out.
His first breakthrough came with a shift in identity—he abandoned veganism. In his videos, he voiced various frustrations with veganism and announced he would no longer follow it. His first video of him eating meat then gained unprecedented views.
It may seem like he shed a layer of identity, but in reality, he was constructing a new one. He didn’t just “abandon veganism”; he “became someone who abandoned veganism.” This process marked the first step in actively building his own identity.
In the following videos, viewers witnessed him slowly becoming overweight, comical, and erratic. While his antics made for entertaining content, they also evoked pity, as it seemed to be the downfall of an ordinary person into an online spectacle. Yet no one realized this was the second step in his identity-building journey—discarding his former self, or rather, “becoming someone who has abandoned their former self.”
At this point, he published a video like this.
At that time, no one understood what he meant by the “social experiment” he spoke of or what it represented. Everyone laughed at his attention-seeking behavior, thinking he had gained views but lost his sense of self and dignity.
It wasn’t until two years later that he returned to the public eye with a completely new image, leaving all those who had mocked him speechless. Just as what you can see in the image above.
From that moment on, his digital identity was fully established. He was no longer a “vegan,” nor a “meat lover,” or a “crazy online clown,” but rather a meticulous and strategic “social experimenter.”
Why is this the case? I believe it’s because he executed a perfect plan to build his online identity. People are drawn to novelty and eye-catching content; constant change and the shock of different viewpoints satisfy audiences, even if they’re never truly satisfied. Whether or not Avocado consciously constructed his identity step by step, his flawless final act made everything he had done before appear as a well-crafted setup. Regardless of whether he is an ordinary person in real life or as outrageous as his online persona, his digital identity is now fully established.
For those who don’t know him in real life, this is the Avocado we recognize—his digital identity presented to us. What the truth behind it all is? No one knows. But at the very least, his digital identity has become a significant part of his true self, earning him fame and generating income. In a sense, perhaps his digital identity has even replaced his actual self.
Reference
【没有AI，它有什么？iPhone 16 Pro国行评测！-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/Y4zBU4g
【【梗百科】爆瘦226斤，骗过全网的鳄梨小哥是怎么回事？-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/CKSWtdT
