Multiple Personalities Across Social Media

The idea of a person siloing different aspects of her personality, never mind personal and professional personas, into different web-presences seems strange. Or narcissistic and even sinister–a lot like Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort, who breaks his soul into seven far-flung pieces in an attempt at immortality. As science writer Mark Changizi wrote in a 2010 post, “Figure out who you are, and stick with it!” But upon further inspection, social media’s ability to develop and maintain multiple identities may be one of the most useful marketing powers of the Web.