You WILL Provide A Mug Shot

Like it or not. On Slate.com:

Lately, the Internet has been trying—politely—to find out what I look like. Gmail suggested that I upload a photo "that everyone will see when you email them." My new Apple computer asked whether it could take a webcam shot for iChat. And Facebook was so annoyed with my question mark icon (where a photo would normally be) that it found a photo of me that someone else had tagged, surrounded my head with a red square, and asked whether it might make a good profile picture. The text-y era of the nobody-knows-you're-a-dog Internet is ending. You either have a head shot or you're invisible.

The more you think about Web head shots, the more loaded a social artifact they become. Scholars have begun to examine "impression management" online.

No kidding? You mean, Online Identity Management became a science after all. Gee, never saw that one coming, did we? Slate goes on to summarize:

So it seems that you, Internet person, are left with two options: Just pick a photo and go for it, or go the arty/ironic route. It's not as if you can stay hidden forever. Eventually someone will upload you to Flickr or tag you in a wedding pic wearing an unflattering, unchosen color.

And where exactly do they derive the right to TAG YOU? It doesn't matter, does it? It's way beyond that.

Welcome to the Transparent Society. Game over. Blog obviated. Another Quixotic battle reaches its inevitable outcome. Don't worry, it's now the age of Wind Energy, so plenty of new windmills to tilt upon!

Onward.