Online personas: Who are you?

With the internet being ubiquitous and the advent of social media services like Facebook, Twitter and Blogger, I can't help but notice the clear divide between the virtual and physical worlds and with these worlds, people seem to adopt multiple personas.

Now I know that we all have multiple identities i.e student, daughter, sister, etc, but do online personas really fit into that? Whether we are online or not, are we not still the same people?

I'm not looking at this philosophically or what have you, it is an honest question.

I suppose we are all guilty of doing this sometimes, where we pick a nice picture for our Facebook profiles and untag ourselves when an unattractive picture surfaces on your wall. But if people already know who we are (or at least aware of who we may be), why do we still fiercely defend our online identities? If our Facebook friends already know who we are, exactly what image are we trying to protect?

OK, I admit that protecting my image is quite important. I want to present myself how I want to be perceived.

What I don't understand, however, are online personas. When people have online alter-egos that are completely different from who they seem to be in the physical world. Different names, different appearances even different personalities.

There seems to be a sense of security and safety in the virtual world. You can say what you really want to say. You can look how you really want to. You can act how you really want to.

I am amazed at how people feel safer sharing these things online. 

I'm even more amazed at how some crave for attention online.

Perhaps there really is a different world online?