Superhero Secret Identities? Ridiculous or Not? Want to know your thoughts. My opinion is in he details below.?

The reason for the secret ID's is to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from super villain retaliation, ...not to mention over-zealous fans.  Of course, Lois suspected Kent of being Superman and spent years trying to prove it.  

As for Superman's disguise, its not just glasses that he uses. His methods are subtle, but brilliant.  Here's what he does:

1. Combs back his hair to disguise the spit curl.

2. Stoops slightly so that he'll appear a little shorter.

3. Speaks in a higher voice.  

4. Acts like a coward in bad situations.  

5. Let's himself be pushed around.  

6. Uses a Superman robot to make appearances alongside him.  

Well, let's set Superman (and any other hero who basically shows their face) aside.  Superman's glasses have long been ridiculed as the most extreme and ridiculous example of this.  If you've ever had a friend who suddenly started (or stopped) wearing glasses, you know there's that moment where you are startled and barely recognize them.  I think Superman's deal is sort of an exaggeration of that effect.  And I would argue that any hero or heroine wearing a domino mask (like what Robin wears where it covers only the area immediately around the eyes) is equally silly.  And they give this to a lot of female superheroes in particular.

The TV show Lois & Clark made fun of it a little when Tempest, a time traveler, mocked Lois Lane, telling her that in the future, she's regarded as one of the dumbest people ever to live for having been so close to him and not being able to figure it out.  

In the TV show Supergirl, in the first season, they have made fun of it a few times, but in the first season, they also tried to defend it.  Jimmy Olsen says something to the effect of people simply not expecting Superman (or girl) to be in their midst in their regular life, and so they overlook what is right in front of their face.

And indeed, we know human perception is FANTASTICALLY influenced by our expectations.  Look up a phenomenon known as 'change blindness'.  There's a handful of others as well.  The basic lesson though is that you don't actually SEE what is actually there.  You SEE what your brain EXPECTS to see based on interpreting the signals from your eyes.  

But even ignoring Superman, any superhero should be incredibly easy to find if we apply real world logic.  If I were a bad guy looking for a hero's identity, here's what I'd do.

First is to compile all known sightings and plot them on a heat map to see what areas the hero frequents most.  We can safely assume any area where (s)he is FAR more active than others have some significance.  Work. Home. School. Friends. Something.  Even better if you can get enough info to know what direction the hero arrived from or departed towards.  Draw those vectors on the heat map.  Do any patterns emerge?

Second, I want to get the best info I can on the person's physical characteristics. Sex. Height. Approx. Weight. Skin color. Hair color.  Eye color.  I would also look for some DNA.  Most of these heroes are in at least one seriously bloody battle per year...get out there and get some DNA if you can.

Third, does the hero have some sort of known association?  It's clear that Superman keeps being reported on by Lane, Kent and photographed by Olsen.  Batman keeps meeting with Commissioner Gordon.  Peter Parker keeps photographing Spider-Man.  Surveil those targets.  See who their associations are.  It's possible the hero and these people are friends.  Obviously that tactic would be fruitless with Gordon, but a home run for Superman as it would point right at Clark Kent, as well as with Spider-Man.

Fourth (assuming step 3 failed), hack into the DMV looking for anyone whose physical criteria matches the 2nd step.  If their home address falls near or in major activity areas according to the heat map OR if the vectors point there, consider that person a 'strong suspect'.

Fifth, try to eliminate as many suspects, especially strong suspects, as you can.  Can you establish that Batman appeared somewhere outside Gotham and your suspect was also out of town or in that place.  Or was the person out of town when the hero wasn't or vice versa.  This might be hard for non-famous people, but should be possible with Bruce Wayne for example since his private jet files with the FAA.  But you can also watch for a hero to have a particularly injuring battle and see if the suspect got medical treatment around that time.  Or called out sick.  The ability to hack and get info is critical to this plan, but in comics, hacking is like a 30 second effort.  And of course, the best way to cut down the list quickly is facial recognition or just LOOKING at the person.  Sometimes the face or body shape makes it obvious.  But facial recognition software against the DMV photo should make it very simple to match.

Sixth, surveil your suspects.  When they are in place A, and the hero appears in B, you can eliminate them and move on to the next one.  Bug their homes if possible.  They're bound to meet and talk openly with confidants in their houses.  Video bugs even better...maybe you catch them in uniform.  

Through some combination of all that, you ought to be able to find pretty much any hero.  Just takes patience, hacking skill, and a little bit of resources.

Now, you also ask 'Why'.  Ostensibly, the in-continuity explanation is that it allows a hero to be free from retribution in their personal lives.  I think the more compelling 'why' is that it goes to the heart of the superhero mythology.  The name of the game is escapism.  It's the metaphor that inside even the mundane person has a hero inside them who can break out of the systemic failures and overcome obstacles.  Having the hero have a secret identity serves the story.

With Superman, many civilians in the DC Universe always thought that he was Superman all the time, and that he would never have a day job when being a normal person. 

There have been times in the comics where people have seen Clark without his glasses, but they usually assume he resembles Superman and is not Superman himself.

Superheroes generally have powers and abilities which range from the implausible to the impossible. If you can suspend disbelief that they possess these abilities, then I don't see why it should be too much of a stretch to suspend disbelief that they are able to keep them secret.

Obviously, it is highly implausible that they would be able to hide their identities/powers in real life, but from a narrative point of view, it doesn't really matter. Fiction which contains fantastical elements generally doesn't concern itself too much with realism. What matters is the story and it's meaning.

I noticed it too it's so obvious and thought the creator of the script used they obvious as a means of keeping it fictitious than real life.