Guest column: The three decades of identity

• In its first decade%2C identity on the Internet wasn%27t very permanent%3A Think chatroom handles
• In its second decade%2C identity became known%3A You%27d share photos with your friend Bob
• Now%2C online identity is becoming more ephemeral%3A We%27re sharing things that disappear

More and more of the tech press have been running headlines along the lines of "Snapchat vs. Facebook". But the big debate is not Snapchat vs. Facebook. It's "ephemeral" vs. "permanent" identity.

To put this debate in context I think it helps to step back a decade or two:

• In the first Decade of Identity (1993-2003), identity on the Internet wasn't very permanent. It was normal to chat in a chatroom with "JohnnyFootball98" about how the Bears needed The Fridge back to take the Superbowl. In another chatroom that same person "JohnnyFootball98" might be "BearsFan72". And if you ever met him in real life you'd probably never know. Identity at this time was mostly anonymous and impermanent.

• In the second Decade of Identity (2004 – 2013), identity became known and permanent. Now that you could talk football with Bob Pemberton, your real friend, you ended up spending less time chatting with "JohnnyFootball98". And while you would easily share family photos with your friend Bob Pemberton (who always remained Bob), you wouldn't think to do the same thing with someone like "JohnnyFootball98" because you didn't really know who he was.

But this Decade of Identity didn't end up working exactly like the real world. In the real world you'd show Bob photos of your newborn daughter and that was it. On the Internet, you'd do the same thing – except Bob and everyone you showed the photos to now had permanent copies. Bob, and even his friends sometimes, could share their comments about that photo when you were no longer there. This was different. And it initially concerned some people. But after 50 friends liked the photos, and relatives shared their comments in minutes, the concerns faded away since the benefit was so clear. This is changing.

• In the third Decade of Identity (now – 2023), identity is becoming "ephemeral". Ephemeral identity is anything you can share that isn't permanent. For example, you can "snapchat" Bob with a photo from the Bears game…and in ten seconds…it disappears.

Most people recall James Bond when they think of self-destructing messages, and in everyday life they're a little suspicious about what you would want to share that has no trace. This thinking is what gave Snapchat the association with "sexting" which led many people to dismiss them.

When you look closer though, sharing things that disappear seems to be the closest to what we do in the real world. Every day we are in touch with dozens of people about hundreds of things. If you had to remember every single interaction, it might be overwhelming. And if you thought that every thing you do could always be seen in the future, you would probably talk to less people about fewer things. (The people who are an exception to this are political leaders and public figures. They understand that they are no longer private citizens, and having most of their actions kept as public record comes with the territory of having the powers they're granted.)

This is why the newest generation probably sees ephemeral identity (and not permanent identity) as the most natural fit. It's closest to how their life has always worked. Imagine you're in a Verizon store and see a sales person talking to a teenager about a new Android phone with two great apps. The first app remembers all their pictures, their mom can see them, and there are a lot of rules. The second app lets their pictures fade away, their mom can't see them, and they pretty much make the rules. It's easy to see what they'll probably want.

Looking at Snapchat's numbers you can see just how many people want this. Just over a year ago there were about 25 million snaps a day. Then shortly after 50 million snaps. A few months later 100 million. A few more months 200 million. And at the end of the year 400 million. Four doubles. In just about a year. The growth is clear.

We're just at the start of this third Decade of Identity. We don't know exactly what it will look like. And we don't how fast it will change. But change it will. Some things will be permanent. Others will be ephemeral. And the things we use the most, will be the ones that let us be who we really are.

Kevin Pomplun is a technology entrepreneur. He has been the founder and chief executive of SkyGrid, a mobile product manager at Facebook in the Identity group, and is now building a new mobile application.