It's been (kinda) done in anime a little. I'm thinking of Durara!! and Sword Art Online. I don't think they carried it to the extent that you're describing, though.
SAO's a shallow fantasy with a Mary Sue (Marty Stu?) protagonist, and the MMO bit treated as window dressing.
Log Horizon is much better at going in depth the consequences of a world that runs MMO-style.
edited 24th Jan '17 2:24:22 AM by hellomoto
Ragna the Bloodedge
Totally. I suggest you take a look at how the characters of persona 4 text the mc. You learn a lot of someone by the style of their texting, commenting, and what they post on social media. I believe the manga "real account" touches open this, where seeing the character's profiles reveals the character traits they openly display to the world. Since people usually show their best side on social media, that can also be an interesting way to include the concept of personas(the masks you reveal to society).
I am the white void, I am et cetera, et cetera... THE END HAS COME!
I have a character who uses social media, but it's more as a testbed for research she's discovered, and another one who is a motoring journalist (a very clear Expy of Tegan Lawson... not that most people are familiar with her).
I don't wanna sound like those netiquette videos from my beginning online high school module but the one interesting concept I took away, from a literary/psychological pov, was that anonymity allows a person to show their true colors. Barring sites like Facebook and others which revolve around your identity online, something more like this very forum could be used to reveal more of their character in certain ways than they would on more mainstream social media sites. Of course going back to the netiquette videos, they were limited in their perspective by how apparently everybody becomes raging assholes when anonymous. Still though, I think that a situation like Alice finding Bob's phone open to a forum site and searching through his post history would allow for some interesting reveals.
... <--- a line of ants
Since you're anoymous and can talk to complete strangers who don't matter to you, you are more free to share your ideas, beliefs, concerns without fear of losing friends or relationships.
Say, Alice is Bob's abusive girlfriend. Alice is also a rather popular girl among her friends as well as Bob's friends. On the outside, it looks like Bob is just taking Alice well. it may not even look like an abusive relationship.
But look through his browser history, and Bob could be posting on a Love & Relationships forum, seeking advice on how to end the abusive relationship. On this forum, Bob reveals how his attempts to get help from his real life friends only end up with "man up" and "she's just playing with you" because they can't imagine him breaking up with a girl many men desire.
On a lighter note, Bob may like to talk about MLP on forums and chats, which he can't really do in real life without getting mocked.
edited 6th Mar '17 12:03:15 AM by hellomoto
Has this been done before, and, if not, what do you think of it? Two characters start dating. Early one, one of them sends the other friendship invitations on social media that are basically unnamed analogs of Facebook, LinkedIn, and FetLife. I figure that the characters' use of social media reveals not only certain facts about them, but also the way in which they want the world to see them and, inadvertently, they way they actually are. As an example of the last, one of the characters expresses political views and also posts revealing selfies, while the other is more reserved.
edited 11th Jan '17 4:13:37 PM by drwhom
The world ended when the prophet said, but you're too sinful to notice.