Brittany Marlier was much more rattled than she wanted to let on when a stranger recently showed up at the Denver salon where she works and asked to speak to her.
The reporter who caught the 21-year-old by surprise knew a lot about her. Her taste in music (metal) and men (an ex-boyfriend is a body-piercer at a shop in Boulder). Her major at the University of Colorado at Denver, which she recently changed from music management to business. Her penchant for tattoos (the latest, two roses entwining a large skull and crossbones, is emblazoned on her chest). Her bout with a cold in January.
Marlier – writing under a pseudonym that includes the offensive c-word used to describe women – had shared all of this and much, much more on MySpace.com.
“That you’re here talking to me about all of this stuff like you know me is a big reality check,” Marlier said.
The social networking website primarily used by 14- to 34-year-olds has exploded in popularity in recent months. Consider it a personal Web page, calendar, diary, school yearbook, digital messaging center, address book and powerful people-finder rolled into one. In only a few clicks, it’s possible to contact friends of friends of friends – or complete strangers around the world.
“MySpace is a pretty good reflection of youth nowadays,” said Heath Rave, a 25-year-old tattoo artist and self-described “hipster dork” living in Minneapolis. His close friend is Marlier’s ex-boyfriend. “It’s cool to know as much as you can about as many different people as you can rather than being so segmented and segregated. It’s a great way to discover.”
Voyeurs also are welcome at MySpace.com. No membership is required to view what has become a global soap opera replete with millions of photographs and chats professing hate, love and everything in between.
“It’s very addictive,” said Lesa Medlock, a 27-year-old Community College of Denver student. “You tell yourself you’ll be on for only 10 minutes, but an hour goes by before you know it.”
Since launching in January 2004, MySpace.com has rocketed onto the social scene. Instead of swapping phone numbers, users often share their MySpace handles or site addresses. The average user spent more than two hours on the site in November, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. That kind of time-suck has translated into astronomical page views. In November, MySpace was the third-most popular site in terms of page views, ranking just behind eBay and Yahoo and ahead of Google and MSN.
Such overwhelming demand prompted Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to shell out $580 million for the company last year. MySpace is on track to generate $300 million in revenue this year, and Murdoch recently said he wants the company to generate $1 billion in the next five years.
MySpace.com is a dream come true for anyone wanting to network or stay connected with family, friends or fans. Thousands of undiscovered bands use the site to promote concerts. Companies push new products and services. Nonprofits promote their causes. Television producers announce casting calls. High school students exchange notes aimed at helping each other improve their Spanish grammar.
“It only takes a second to let 800 people in our network know about a show,” said Cameron Burris, a 23-year-old University of Colorado at Denver student who plays guitar for the band Downtied. Marlier is among his band’s list of contacts. “And then people from everywhere start contacting us, and, well, that feels pretty cool.”
Youth pastor Eric Farwell, 27, of LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont uses the site to stay in touch with kids and other pastors who attend his church – as well as with classmates from his days in seminary. He finds that he can minister more effectively because some kids open up to him more online than they do in person. A teenager he sees at church regularly is a friend of a friend of Marlier’s.
“MySpace is like anything else,” Farwell said. “It can be used for good or bad. Around here, we just try to help each other be points of light in darkness.”
Given that MySpace.com boasts more than 50 million users, there’s plenty of darkness to confront. The site is a potential nightmare for anyone who gives a whit about privacy and safety. Company rules prohibiting the use of private information – such as last names, phone numbers and street addresses – and offensive content are laughable considering how often they’re broken. Minors share photos of their drinking and pot smoking. It’s not unusual to see teens try to engage in online conversations with adults who are clearly trafficking in pornography.
“This site and others like it scare me,” said Aaron Weissenflu, chief executive of Mercury Risk Management, a corporate tech security company in Littleton. He wants to see the minimum age for MySpace users raised from 14 to at least 18. “People think it’s all good fun, but I think it’s one-stop shopping for a lot of perverts. We really are talking about life and death here. Parents have to start paying attention to what’s going on. There is no such thing as privacy when it comes to keeping your kids safe.”
There’s also no such thing as complete privacy on MySpace.com.
Alongside pictures of themselves, users such as Marlier often post enough personal information to make it very easy to find them. In recent months, several disappearances have been linked to MySpace.com.
Users might also talk smack about their employers, school principals and other authority figures. As a result, more companies are reviewing the site before extending job offers or dishing out raises, and more educators are meting out suspensions. Two Indiana high school students recently were suspended after creating a spoof page containing threatening remarks about a principal and school librarian.
Marlier’s boss, Tina McKeever, credits Marlier’s networking on MySpace with drumming up business and boosting attendance at art showings hosted at the salon. But McKeever was less than thrilled that her business’ name was so closely linked to Marlier’s personal exploits.
“This isn’t my thing, and I personally wouldn’t call myself what she does, but I believe it’s her business, “McKeever said. “I am a believer in the First Amendment and the freedom of speech. But yeah, this is tricky because I’m also running a business.”
Marlier said she would consider changing her user name – or at least removing the salon’s name – from her page.
Staff writer Christine Tatum can be reached at 303-820-1015 or ctatum@denverpost.com.
