It's not like your friends would suddenly not know who you are anymore. You do also talk to your friends in person right? I use a fake name on FB and so do lots of my friends. Like the OC says; there's no magic.
I also use an alias email address. Together you can use FB apps without spreading too much easy data around.
The point is, facebook is tracking your location via IP address. They are most definitely not interested in knowing your real name, so your fake name is as good as anything else. They are dumping relevant Ads on you based first of all on where exactly you're located at. They'd then attempt to dump relevant Ads based on how you (the fake or real name) interacts with the facebook site. They are watching your eyeballs and you can't escape the moment you make a single move.
I don't think he's worried abotu the ads.
He's just saying he's getting away with most of Facebook features without having to tell them his exact name and personal information.
Facebook doesn't care about exact name and personal information except to target their Ads effectively. Its no big deal if you don't tell them your real name, they will jump over to the next field. Sooner or later they're going to connect the dots to provide you effective advertisements. It starts with them tracking your location via IP address.
The original opinion piece of this thread notwithstanding, but for the majority of the Internet users, the issue is not if and why the state is tracking you (because people at the large scale are not criminals trying to hide from the state), but the issue is whether we should give up liberties in order for the corporations to serve us effective advertisements. The old fashioned TV box was effective only because it had no competitor. The same is not the case on the Internet.
PS: the only reason Facebook requires real name (or the reason it has built its social network as a walled-garden) so each person stays unique and does not infiltrate or corrupt the data by signing up multiple times via pseudo-identities. Again, look at it from the advertising perspective. Do we think advertising works effectively if one person shows up as multiple? It doesn't.
I also use an alias email address. Together you can use FB apps without spreading too much easy data around.