Zuckerberg, Dubois, and your online identity

Here's a fascinating article that poses an interesting question, from zunguzungu:
"The Soul of Mark Zuckerberg: What DuBois can tell us about Facebook"
http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/the-soul-of-mark-zuckerberg-what-dubois-can-tell-us-about-facebook/

The broad question is: What is our online identity? Can we have more than one?

Mark Zuckerberg: "You have one identity ... The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly... Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity."

Is there any benefit to having multiple online identities? If so, is it a sign of a lack of integrity?

I happen to agree with the author that sometimes people don't fit into a given category, and that it is beneficial. I also don't think having multiple identities is a bad thing.

Bear in mind that Zuckerberg's personal beliefs have shaped, and continue to shape, the largest social networking site in the world. What are the implications of this? On Facebook all your friends are lumped together. You can't present one image to your co-workers and another to your wild friends; it's all mixed. (I mentioned this, by referring to a great presentation on the subject, in a past post, "Google Me", back in August.)

It is convenient for a public figure like Zuckerberg, someone whose every move is scrutinized, to think this way. It is probably not possible for him to separate portions of his life given his status. He also has the convenience of not feeling the need to present different personalities to the world, which DuBois pointed out.

But just because he doesn't feel the need to have multiple identities, should he impose that vision on all of us, as he does with Facebook?

Furthermore, the article points out, Zuckerberg makes his money this way! The more he knows about you, the more he can monetize that information. Yes, online sites (and banks, credit card companies, cable/satellite TV providers, internet service providers, et cetera) know a lot about you. But you should certainly be able to control how you are viewed by the world, right? You should make that call, not Zuckerberg. I like to think that Google is generally better at this than Facebook but they have made glaring errors (Buzz, anyone?) in this area, too. It is a fine line.

Fascinating article.