Maybe I want to have a social networking site so that I can be who I want to be without all the restrictions life puts on you. Maybe I want to talk about my personal life without having to worry that my friends, family and co-workers will find out what I do in my spare time. Maybe I just want to be completely and utterly anonymous. Why can't I be?

Some social networking sites, like Facebook for instance, require that you tell who you really are and use your real name. They also want you to give out personal information about yourself like where you live and where you work or go to school. Why should I tell anyone any of those things?

Some of you are saying to yourselves, "social networking is about meeting people". Maybe, but does that mean I have to meet them in real life? Isn't it enough to just be virtual friends? Do they really have to know my name to be my friends?

In the 12 years I've been on the Internet I've seen things change a lot. Back then being anonymous was all the rage. We would meet people for real, but only after getting to know them well first. Then we'd exchange real information, until then we hardly knew the other even had a name.