sense of place

How do we interpret the world around us? Does where we come from define who we are and our sense of identity? How is a 'sense of place' incorporated into the internet? Do we still need to relate to others online by where they are geographically located?
It seems to me that location is important - whether on Second Life(SL) or through geographical networks on Facebook (e.g. London, Manchester). But does this imbue us a with a sense of community with others that are co-located or simply allow us to form preconceived notions of others based on where they are?

Does the internet form its own 'sense of place'? As in, "where do you come from/meet? MySpace, Bebo." Some sites are trying explicitly to form places - Nuzizo is one example of this, with neighbourhoods inside an overall city complex and SL is another obvious example. Yet on SL I don't feel any affinity for a particular island or district, although maybe I've just not found 'home' there yet.

Does mobile technology infringe on our sense of where we come from? Personally, when people ask where I come from I feel partially at a loss. I normally claim Perth as that's where I currently live, but I don't consider myself to be from Perth and I normally qualify my answer with something to that effect. But in essence I don't know where I've come from, as I've probably only lived in any one place for a maximum of about 4 years at a time. I wonder if our increasing mobility leads us to a lack of roots. I've noticed that quite a lot of the Scottish travellers' stories are set quite precisely in location but not necessarily time. I'm not sure why that is, perhaps to give a common set of reference points to the audience or to authenticate the tale.

Final thought, I heard an interesting phrase yesterday whilst half-watching 'Building Britain' on BBC1:
"London does not belong to the people, people belong to London" - how true is this of social technologies?