The Distributed Self Virtual Worlds and the Future of Human Identity #SecondLife There has been a great deal of discussion recently concerning the merit of social media networks and their increasing insistence on �authentic� identity usage as of late. In example, we can see how something like Facebook or Google+ may be misinterpreting what it is that actually makes up an authentic identity in the digital age. I�ve written on this before in prior articles, but more under the auspices of the most extreme case of what would happen if the trend for �authentic� identities continued to persist, in that there is an increasingly higher probability that such will be challenged legally the more it is insisted upon. When we talk about an identity that people most likely know us by, this name isn�t always a birth name, and this is why the idea of pseudonymous identity reigns supreme in the digital age. It is likely that many people around the world know us as our nicknames, handles or virtual avat...