It is important to know your own identity. Only when you know yourself can you hope to know anyone else.

Part of knowing who you are is whether or not to allow others to know who you are. If you feel that you have nothing to hide and have no need or desire for secrecy, it is very easy. You use one name for yourself, and allow others to use that name. If you know who you are, it doesn't even matter what the name is, and you are defining yourself with that name.

Online, this is an even bigger issue. Here we have many people, all going by different names. This is not necessarily a problem, but often it is, as the name is all we have to go by. We can get to know a person by one name, but suddenly they decide to go by a different name. To them, it is a good decision, and they have a good reason for the new name, but it can be very confusing to others. Suddenly, the person they knew seems to be gone, and there is another in that place. We can figure out easily enough that this new name is really the same person, but it is still confusing.

On the internet, we can choose to go by a name that is completely different from the name given by our parents. This can be a very good thing, as it allows us to decide our own identity a bit more than we are usually used to in real life, as we are known only by our words, and we can choose what parts of ourselves to present. We can, essentially, create an identity that is slightly, or in some cases, radically different than the one we live with in real life.

You must know yourself. But how will you allow others to know you?