Adam Schultz

I checked my myspace profile today and saw that there was a kid from chicago, most likely in college, telling me in a private message that I stole his name and adamschultz.com.

So I mesaged him back and asked that he must also be an Adam Schultz and he promptly replied and called me an asshat.

I have thick skin, I’m not worried about some stranger with a similar name throwing ignorant insults. However, I am intrigued.

There was a time not so long ago where a person only had one name. If there happened to be another person in the same town with the same name and it wasn’t your father you would add your Fathers name or your trade to your name to differientate. This was the case for some time and continues to be the case in many cultures across the world.

This worked well for a long time and even in a big city, middle names and the local nature of our existance limited our exposure to others who shared our name, the essential core of your outward identity.

But now, things have changed. We have moved into virtual worlds where the proximity in which we exist has shrunk. Additionally, our names exist in what can only be considered real estate in this new space.

Presently, in the Google neighborhood, there is 1 other Adam Schultz who has better real estate than I do. In Naymz, I’ve got dibs but others can still move in. In the domin neighborhood however, I’ve got Boardwalk - AdamSchultz.com.

Now, there is another Adam Schultz who is frustrated with the fact that someone else owns the land for which he naturally feels entitled. There is only the one .com name to own. He can get all of the other .whatevers but I have .com.

Because of this, as we passed each other in the MySpace neighborhood he essentially spit on my shoes. I didn’t know who he was before this altercation, but he sure knew who I was.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

Online identity is getting stranger and stranger.