Maggie's Farm

That was an excellent article and historical perspective.

In my small circle of blogs, we have hit upon the idea that many of these multiple expressions can only occur in an online context, not fully tethered to reality. Not only does no one know if you are a dog on the internet, you can decide to be a dog on the internet and largely get away with it. As more of reality occurs in cyberspace rather than real space, it is hard to know the result. These identities may be a house of cards, but online, houses of cards can remain standing.

There was also the suggestion that unrealistic sexual expectations for teenagers have caused them to buy out of the competitive, comparative system altogether, adopting unusual identities as a "leave me alone" strategy. If so, those could be temporary. What damage they do in the meantime worries me.