Losing Your Identity to an Online Handle

It happens. It's happened to me on more ocassions then I'd like to admit, but you'd be lying if you said it never happened to you.

Calling someone by their online handle as opposed to their real name. A lot of has to do with the fact that as we go through our day, whether we're connecting through Facebook, Twitter, or even MySpace, our network does not always use their given name as their online handle. I've caught myself greeting someone by their online handle simply because that is all I know them by and I recognize them from their avatar image.

I've even extended my hand to people and introduced myself as @pandaran, my Twitter handle, only because if I said "Hi, my name is Luis," I'd probably get the blank stare. Rather than avoid this situation, the online handle works fine.

But this leads to a much bigger question. Do we tend to lose our identities the more we delve into our social networks? Do we become the physical representations of profiles rather than real people?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, especially if you've got stories to share.

Photo Credit Rickydavid

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