danah's social networking field research suggests that teens tend to create new identities when accessing prior creations is a barrier. "They have expressions scattered across numerous services with numerous handles." Adult culture generally runs against this.
For example, common knowledge says that starting a new blog at a new URL means giving up link prowess.
But in practice, scattering yourself paints a broader picture for search to discover you. Isn't it better for first page of search results to be you? Even if from multiple contexts, perhaps it is a better picture of you.
And your real friends will always follow.
