Saturday Night Live’s version of A/S/L. The Pat character was problematic because people didn’t have what - in its absence - becomes a very important cornerstone for identifying how to interaction with someone.
Perhaps more eloquently, here’s danah boyd in 2001 (pdf) on “the role of identification in online communities” and this “standard formulation of identity online”.
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How has the most revolutionary innovation of our time - the Internet - transformed our world? What does it mean for the modern family? How has it changed our concepts of privacy? Of celebrity? Of love, sex and hate?
This is the online reporter's notebook for The Untangling the Web column in The Observer newspaper and the Untangling the Web book, published September 2012 by Guardian Books.
It's the collection of interviews, links, photos, videos and brainstorms that are feeding this compendium of the latest research about the social effects of the online world.
Contribute your ideas, stories and experiences by email to aleks.krotoski.freelance@guardian.co.uk or via Twitter, by tagging your tweets with #UTTW or @aleksk.
Aleks Krotoski has been writing about interactivity since 1999. She has a PhD in social psychology, focussing on relationships and influence online. Aleks is the host of the Tech Weekly podcast.
Read Aleks' Observer column at guardian.co.uk/untanglingtheweb
