So, what EXACTLY do you look for on myspace?
 

It seems that whenever we find out someone's full name or their first name and location, our first impulse is to look them up on myspace (and facebook). This person can be a date or possible employee or whatever. Then there's people we already know and want to know them better. I always wonder what are people looking for on the profiles. I'm sure different people look for different things.

I pay most attention to:
-When someone is online
-How well-rounded a person is...the more variety in movies, TV shows, and music they have the better.
-Their hometown.
-What they put down as their race. I've made some interesting observations there, if you know what I mean.
-LIES! If you just started as a social worker, you do NOT make $100,000-150,000 a year!
-Political views. I'm kind of weirded out by the extremists. Liberal, moderate, conservative, libertarian, other...are fine with me, but I don't like to see the "very liberal/conservative" views.
-Their myspace/facebook persona vs. real-life persona
-Heroes and who they would like to meet.

Pictures and how many friends they have. Sometimes I would even look at which GLO they are affiliated with :)

Wow I would consider myself very well rounded as regards to books and movies and all (English major in a film heavy dept.) but I NEVER put down my favorites or whatnot. Ehh I don't (didn't) think anyone cares.

I like to check out what friends we have in common and what people's majors are/were.

I'm getting a little bored of facebook, but SK wouldn't let me deactivate! lol they message us constantly on it. I just wish facebook had an instant messanger feature.

The geek in me looks at the layout. To me, flashy and eyeblinding layouts say a lot. So do layouts that have Jessica Alba half naked.

Also...pictures. If a person has more pictures of their car/motorcycle than they do of themselves, that says a lot too. Self portraits of themselves shirtless in the bathroom make me vomit.

The grammar whore in me wishes more people would be more mindful of their spelling errors. If they can take the time to pimp their MySpace layout, then take the freaking time to make sure you don't have any spelling errors so you don't look like a dumb fool. Also, THOSE WHO FEEL THE NEED TO TYPE THEIR PROFILES IN CAPS LOCK oR iN ToGGLeCaSe ShOuLd Be ShOt. It'S sUcH aN eYeSoRe ReAdInG PrOfILeS LyK tHiS...but it's also an indication of their maturity level, because only 14 year olds type like that.

yah i'm actually pretty big on the layouts and their top friends lists.

layouts for the same reasons OTW gave

and top friends list because i really don't want to be friends with somebody who has only completly hot chicks in their top friends for no other reason than to show off how many hot chicks he knows

I'm sorry, if I'm an employer gathering info on someone who wants to work for me, if I see a potential new hire's MySpace is filled with half naked pictures, that'll up throw a red flag.

If a potential date has pictures of Tila Tequila and other import model whores all over his page, I'd wonder if that's the kind of woman he really wants.

Why bother getting to know the person if you're already turned off? That'd just be wasting my time so I won't even bother.

If people are concerned about being unfairly judged because of their profiles, maybe they should start being truthful and honest instead of simply putting up fronts.

I mean, if I want to get to know a person better, I'll check out their favorites and blogs and stuff.. but as far as what would raise red flags as to their personality, it would be sexually provocative pictures, those LAME bathroom-mirror self portraits (LMAO), too many glittery blinky things, TyPiN LiKe DiS, lying, or a bunch of highly personal emotional blogs. Seriously, nobody needs to read that, make it private.

Oh also, comments from friends. Last year we had a candidate for student elections disqualified because his friend left a comment like "if people don't vote for you, they're FAGS" on his page, and the guy left it up there instead of deleting it. Seriously, put it on comment-approval!

Yes, one of the first things I look at on someone's profile is his/her pictures, and their friends. If they have 3, 875 friends who are all scantily-clad girls in provacative poses, I don't exactly get a favorable impression. Fair? Maybe not, but it's always wise to be conscientious about what your MySpace profile says about you--especially to someone who doesn't know you well--because you never know who might be looking at it.

And comment-approval is a good thing, folks...I know someone who got into big trouble because of something someone left on his comments as a joke, and it wasn't pretty.

Because the fact that someone enjoys looking at beautiful women automatically means they are unqualified for a job and will probably sexually harrass every woman they come in contact with. Right.

I can see the issue if there are illegal activities alluded to (drugs, etc.), but professional life and personal life should be kept seperate. I'm not saying that it's wrong to look at the profiles per se (and I'm not saying it's wright to flaunt half naked pictures of yourself, etc. on your profile), but to place hard core judgements on people that will effect their very real life (income, job opportunities, etc.) is close minded and wrong when there are not legal issues to worry about.

They should be, but they aren't. I know there are employers/grad schools that look online at candidates, and that includes MySpace pages, Facebook pages, etc. I mean, you can obviously make your page private, but people are judged on first impressions. If the job or scholastic position is high-competition, anything unprofessional or questionable about the applicant will be a detriment. Maybe it's not fair, but that's life.

As for me, I never really think of anything when I look at pages. The only friends I have are people who I'm actually friends with, so the pages don't matter much to me. The high graphic pages bug me sometimes, but besides that, no other thoughts really cross my mind.

Truth.

-Lil' Hannah
--HR professional who looks up candidates on MySpace

I agree with keeping it private or at least discreet...its your choice to put information up on the internet, just like its other's option to look at it. When I was active my chapter had a policy in the bylaws about keeping facebook/webshots, etc clean because it reflected on the sorority - if you see all of XYZs w/ drunk, half naked pictures you'll make an assumption about the sorority, and I can see an employer also not wanting its employees to reflect them in a negative light. And my company also looks at those pages.

As for what I look for on Myspace, when I get added by someone, I usually just look to see if its possible that I know them - college, highschool, current location. I'm just not interested in adding someone that I don't know.

Yep. I don't really use it much, anyway; mostly to see what people are up to with whom I may not have otherwise kept in touch.

I was not even aware of MySpace until earlier this year.

Maybe I am more of a privacy nut than most, but I cannot imagine putting those kinds of details about myself on the internet for anyone to see.

Purely out of curiosity- what is the real benefit of being out there on MySpace? Do people really meet that many new real life friends or make connections for work? I just ask because the potential downsides seem so great. Maybe in certain lines of work it is more helpful than in others?

As for the employment thing- this is an interesting angle. I have been sitting here trying to think of how that could result in some kind of lawsuit- but I really can't. When you put yourself out there in the public eye in an unflattering way, then you have to expect others will consider that in evaluating you as a potential employee.

For me, it's been a way to get back into touch with some friends, and an easier way to keep in touch with others. Also, I've had some friends track me down. Of course, they can't see my information unless I "friend" them, and the only picture I have are ones that aren't embarassing. Additionally, I don't have any of my contact info on my page. People would have to message me, and would have to have my email address through other means to even email me.

Yeah, exactly - the beauty of myspace is that superficial or simple messages can be shipped instantly, and conveniently. Instead of calling ksigkid to go "OH GOD I HATE THE YANKEES WHY DID THEY HAVE TO GET ABREU FOR DICK" I can drop him a message. It's not very personal, but then again we can discuss personal issues via personal means - I can always email him if I have something important to say. I almost never have anything important to say, so the superficial messages can be passed along much more easily.

However, as a buddy of mine put it, it is truly the forum for the self-absorbed - just read this thread, it's hilarious, and it's from people in the top 15% or so of educational strata.

My page can't be found by searching for my name - it's not listed under my real name, and I have a different email address for use w/ clients and employers. There are enough identifying details that anyone who knows me can find me, but not enough to locate me if you're trying to "fight, yo" . . . however, I've seen people list their kids' names, schools, etc - it's just like life: there are varying degrees of both stupidity, and risk tolerance, but most people don't know the difference between the two.

And I've also seen people link to their employers in the profiles, and then post blogs about "OMG I HATE WORK" postings. I question the wisdom of venting about personal things through a semi-public page, except for, of course, venting about ones favorite sports teams.

When I joined MySpace over three years ago, I joined because everyone was doing it. It was a way to keep up with current friends.

Since then it's been a tremendous help in locating high school classmates, and that's important because my 10 year reunion's next year.

I don't use it to make new friends. I'm quite content with those I know now, and when I get friend requests from someone I don't know...it's just easy to hit that reject button. I know 99.9% of those friends I have saved IRL. The other 0.9% are individuals I met via GC.

I don't look for people on Myspace. I use it to look for music/DJs/local events/sports-related stuff and to send messages -- for whatever reason, I seem to use Myspace over email/IM to get in touch with a few people.

I've been trying to get all the irrelevant shit off my page, which is more of a pain in the ass than I ever imagined. I also don't put much of my business out there because, well, why?

I work in a law office which does a substantial amount of family law.

You'd be surprised what adverse parties put on their myspace pages.. hilarious..

E.g., "OMG Last night, I was SOOOOooo High!!!"

3 postings later...

"I love my little girl."

-- People on that site have a touch of the downs I think.

If you have big giant flashy graphics which mean I can't see your whole page at once on my computer screen, you probably suck. Unless you're 16. Then you get a pass. If you are 35 you do not.

Oh, and when you're describing yourself, your life philosophy or your favorite movies, it's good to SPELL CORRECTLY. If you really have seen "Appocalpys Now" 45 times, I would think the spelling on the titles would have sunk into your brain.

I use myspace to find out more about certain people, to keep in contact with those I don't see that much or don't have classes with and things like that. Of course my profile is set on private and if I don't know you I won't add you. Also it's great for staying in the know about church events in my area.

Pet peeves ~ People with ridculous amounts of friends, fake celebrity profiles, people with so much on their page that it takes twenty years to load, and profile hackers. CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD!

Sometimes changing your password isn't enough.

People are so desperate to pimp out their profiles that they don't pay attention to what they're putting in their "About Me" (etc) sections. If a file ends in .swf and you don't think it's supposed to be there, it's not supposed to be there.

It'll phish your information as well as those who visit your page.

And pay attention to the damn login page. If you get a login redirect, login again at www.myspace.com and not the page you got.

How do they find them (employers)? People don't put their real, full names on there do they?

First and last names aren't published, but if you type it into their search engine, it'll bring up your profile. It's used for search purposes only.

I look at other people's pictures and then mock them relentlessly. Sometimes I send fake messages pretending to be nice so I can get on their friend list and then I can view their pictures that way. Then I mock them some more.

Myspace is evil but provides endless amounts of entertainment for forum threads like 'Trolls of Myspace'.

Ahh . . thanks :)

Thank you. This thread just made me change my settings.

I use a my .edu address for my resumes (not my regular email), and I just removed my first name from my information so it wouldnt show up in a search. Initially, I had removed my last name, but realized that...people need either last name or email to add to my friends list.

I wanted to leave it public, not like I really have anything to hide, but hopesully it makes it harder to search for me now - now that I'm 6 weeks shy of graduating and finally getting job interviews.