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Technology, Culture, Commentary on the Internet Revolution

MySpace’s Tom Lies About His Age

by Mike Abundo on October 23rd, 2007

Tom

No wonder so many people lie about their age on MySpace. The founder does it too.

I knew there was something fishy about that Tom guy when he suddenly popped up on my MySpace profile years ago. That’s why I removed him posthaste.

Tom Anderson, the co-founder of MySpace and the first friend to anyone who creates a MySpace profile, isn’t really 32 like it says on his MySpace profile. His Wikipedia entry, which says he was born in 1975, is also incorrect.

How old is he really? We first heard 40. We dug a little online and came up with nothing. But then we got a senior person at MySpace to talk to us about it off record at the Web 2.0 Summit last week: this person confirmed that he’s really “36 or 37″ and that MySpace has been trying to keep this quiet for some time.

Is this important? Only in that perhaps the most famous person online has been lying about his age at least since starting the company.

Why would he do this? Maybe so that the company looked cooler, started by 20-somethings instead of 30-somethings when it first launched in 2003.

I remember corresponding via email with the MySpace guys when I was with a software company back in 2004. They sure as Hell didn’t sound young to me. Now we know why. Tila Tequila says the MySpace guys became uncool after their purchase by News Corp. Perhaps they were never really cool to begin with.

If you want to see what Tom’s really like, check this photo from his secret MySpace profile. Unlike Tom, I don’t hide my age (29) or my salacious photos with sexy girls.

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POSTED IN: MySpace, Social Networking

2 opinions for MySpace’s Tom Lies About His Age

  • Ed
    Oct 23, 2007 at 8:28 pm

    Frankly, I wish the Government can make them shut down MySpace. It’s a database for child molesters. If they can’t due to First Amendment, then they need to change the sign up section and require a credit card for age verification. I personally hate chat room for that reason. You don’t know who you are talking too, and people lie on their profile.

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