[ngpio]

I would recommend that parents encourage their children to use a variety of usernames on the major social platforms, none of which are related to their legal name.

I'm in the process of transitioning to a single username everywhere based on the domain ngp.io, which itself is essentially "[my intials] I/O". I like the elegance and conciseness of it. But I'm extremely glad that I didn't do something like this earlier. My childhood online (as well as my "online childhood", if you catch my meaning) remain obscure to all but those with the necessary time, resources and motivation.

That's surprisingly powerful when you're surrounded by swarms of people whose entire histories can be looked up in a matter of minutes.

It can also be damning; I'm reminded of the line in Mad Men referring to Don Draper, "He has no people! You can't trust a person like that." Being the mysterious man from out of town might be alluring from a sexual stance, but business-wise it's still difficult to advance without strong geographically-rooted social networks, and the first step to creating those nowadays is often glancing at someone's Facebook or Twitter and exclaiming "hey, I know that person too!" Personhood is partially defined by your connection to other people, so having a visible interpersonal history is, in a sense, required for passing the Turing tests you're subjected to by those around you. Gaps in your history, on purpose or by accident, can result in being treated like a subhuman.