Abstract: From the advent of the internet, scholars and the wider media have been enthralled by the potential that the internet’s anonymity provides for the creation of new identities that forgo the traditional boundaries of race, gender, and religion, while others have been critical of the potential for harmful identity deception. It is my aim, however, to prove that these perceptions are flawed and that identity online is closely tied with identity offline in a way that limits the creation of entirely new online identities. This paper will draw evidence from various sources, including studies of identity online and trends in social network use, to demonstrate that aspects of one’s ‘real life’ identity are always present in one’s ‘online’ identity.
