In reading Coming of Age in Second Life (2008), I kind of wonder how social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-In fit in, particularly on the subject of identity. Virtual worlds like second life seem to be characterized by virtual identities, that for most people are separate from their actual identities. People in different online communities negotiate different online identities, as they do in the real world. Yet in the real world, people's identities are still tied to their real names, education, location, occupation, and relationships. This too, I feel, has been the trend on the internet in recent years, where increasingly we see online activity being tied to personal accounts that identify real-world people. Tons of sites these days allow you to sign up or log in through a Facebook or Twitter account, thus tying your identities in multiple communities and online discussions to your real name. Facebook and Twitter and Google Plus themselves are based on real identities. They extend and facilitate real relationships and activities, more so than they allow for the creation of virtual ones. Much of this has been driven by the need for these large social media companies to monetize their business and collect data for analytics and advertisement targeting. While people retain the ability to negotiate virtual identities in virtual worlds such as Second Life, WoW, 4Chan, etc, the trend towards the coalescence of virtual identities into people's real identities is a subject of importance to online media studies. It could be argued that the promises of anonymity and freedom of the early internet* has been subjected to the same market and political forces of the actual world. It brings into question issues of privacy, anonymity, identity, capitalism, etc. What does it mean when these kind of exportations of real-world interactions to the digital realm are normalized and become accepted and widespread?
*http://w2.eff.org/Censorship/Internet_censorship_bills/barlow_0296.declaration
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