I think this study is deeply flawed by biases that view people who enjoy the online world as stereotypical geek isolates. They see email and other online activities as cold, impersonal, and essentially solitary. The column is about this study, and presents lots more details. And like the Luv Bug, it will do no harm unless you click on it. In fact, if you've ever gotten on a mailing list you can't get off of, or gotten on a spam list you can't unsubscribe to, you may be a victim of aliasing.
Many companies do it, too.
If you think about it, I'm sure you can imagine the kinds of headaches this mismatch can cause. If you've never checked into what's really lurking behind your email address, it might be worth a quick read. Just For Grins Reader Marv Neufeld sends along this fabulous hoaxmail that's just starting to make the rounds. As many of you know, each year the Internet must be shut down for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it. During that 24-hour period, five powerful Internet search engines situated around the world will search the Internet and delete any data that they find.