Most of my Facebook friends are cautious people who are sensible of the implications of an online profile, so I can’t remember any of them having had difficulties or embarassing moments due to oversharing. They also know their way around the privacy settings and how to hide their profile or friend list from strangers (or even friends).
One thing, however, that irritates me when browsing the friend list, are the friends that use fake names or shortened forms such as Ma Ny or Lo La. Combined with a photo of their dog or a random sunset, it makes me think for a second: “Who is this person again?” Guys, this is a Facebook! A collection of pictures and names of the people I know. I think of it as a dynamic extension of my address book, in which I also prefer having full, real names (unless the person acts under a different, well-known pseudonym, but that’s a different story …).
Now you may argue that you’re doing it for privacy reasons, and I can see the noble intentions behind it, but I believe that changing one’s name is not the right strategy to protect one’s privacy. It could even invoke a false sense of security.
A fake name is not the best way to protect you from stalkers, your boss or other annoying people:
Facebook has privacy settings that allow you to hide your profile from search, both in Facebook and on external search engines. You can also limit messages to friends and new friend requests to friends of friends, or block certain people. I believe these are better methods to prevent yourself from being found and stalked than changing your name, which may also annoy your friends.
A fake name doesn’t do much to hide your identity from Facebook:
If you think your enemy is not your boss but Mark Zuckerberg, think again. Facebook’s business model is to take your demographics and the observed behavior on Facebook and attached sites, e.g. your “likes”, and serve advertisements that fit your interests so you hopefully click on them. Is your name relevant for this?! Not much. If you still think Facebook shouldn’t know your name, because it allows matching with your real world identity, think about your email address or other associated accounts. Do they contain your name? If yes, Facebook could get it if they really want it. Which also means, if you really want to build a fake identity (which I cannot endorse, of course) on Facebook, you need more than just a modified name.
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