This was probably a good thing in many ways, at least for me. I don't thing it would do me much good if the people I work with (contacts as well as colleagues) could follow all my edit wars on Wikipedia, earnest discussions about geek culture or outright flaming of the America Deserved It brigade on various message boards after 9-11. I still use pseudonyms most of the time.
I guess it's not an issue with younger people who happily post photos of themselves on MySpace. But for slightly older people like me, it can be a bit of a leap. It's just not the done thing ...