"On The Other Claw...."

I think I will play a bit of devil's advocate, on this one. I try not to as that usually gets me into trouble but, what the heck. I'm in one of my 'Paint It Black' moods anyways, as you might have noticed.

On the one hoof I agree with you totally. Sandberg's response is about as smarmy and especially, as creepy as it can get - oh, you can't be SOCIAL unless you're the real you, Number Six. You don't want to be... UNSOCIAL, do you?

And your prognosis is dead on: her 'social web doesn't exist without real selves' is a lame ass smokescreen. As I noted previously to another here in this post, Sandberg doesn't KNOW from social, she's just a beancounter and a nerd. She has no idea what she's talking about and has a sound byte that was written by someone else, to advance her cause and get her yo' moneys. Nothing more.

But on the other hoof -

We've seen what we've wrought, with the ability to essentially be someone who isn't you and totally anonymous. Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory certainly is part of that statement; that MySpace suicide of a few years ago, where a teen girl killed herself because, in brief, a bored housewife pretended to be a teen boy and became her boyfriend and then dumped her, that's part of it too.

Then there's those underaged users at Furaffinity, who are browsing and marking as favorites explicit, adult art. That's part of that statement, too.

So while I'm not willing to sign an affidavit and provide my SSN# every time I want to comment, 'what an informative, great article!' at ABCNews.com -

I'm still, never the less, kind of wondering how much longer this anonymous Land Of Do As You Will we created online can persist.