I am. I am also on Friendster, LinkedIn, and the one from my college. I was never part of Xanga, Tribe or Bebo. I was on one called sixdegrees a while ago. But I don't think they're around anymore.
Somehow in the maze of social networking websites, myspace has become the clear leader. The cool one. I have a personal page with my real name, pictures of my friends, and their silly comments. I'm not on it very much, unlike some of my younger co-workers, who seem to live on the site. There's an entire subculture of language, links, music, and connections that I don't think I will ever understand. I feel like my Dad does about the entire Internet.
Before I forget here's my myspace page. There's nothing on it, but why should there be. It's my "LA Money Guy" page. Anything I have to say, I say here.
If you have a myspace page, do you know how easy it is for someone to find you? They can search by name or email address. If they know where you went to school, they can search your graduating class for either high school or college. I found some old classmates on myspace. It's wild stuff.
Sounds pretty cool right? Well, that's the dangerous part. Taking a random glance at myspace pages you will likely find high school or college students discussing their loves, whether that is members of the opposite sex or same sex, whether it is alcohol and drugs, or the latest rock band sensation. They discuss American Idol, Desperate Housewives and their favorite team. So what's so dangerous?
Well, first of all, you never know who is reading. The first thought is some crazy stalker or molester. Especially when you consider that you have high school kids naming the high school that they attend, the teacher they hate and the mall they hang out at. Yikes, scary thought. If you have teenage kids, I hope you are aware of this stuff.
The other concern is business related. Employers now use myspace as a secondary background check to ask the questions that they cannot legally ask in an interview. Are you married? Do you have kids? How old are you? Are you gay? No, they can't ask that. But chances are you have answered it for them.
A friend of mine recently got ripped off by an eBay seller. The guy promised some goods and intentionally did not deliver. Took the money and ran. Did this to over a dozen people simultaneously, and shut down his eBay account. My friend finds the guy on myspace, knows where he works, lives, and his favorite song. Doesn't do anything with it. But think about what he could do.
Like I said earlier, Yikes.
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