Tom Anderson (MySpace)
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Tom Anderson (born October 13, 1975) is the President of the social networking website MySpace. He founded the site along with CEO Chris DeWolfe. Since newly created MySpace accounts include Tom as a default "friend," he has become known as the face of MySpace. As of April 2007, Tom has over 169 million "friends."
Anderson attended University of California, Berkeley from 1994 to 1998, and graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric and English. From 1999 to 2000, he attended University of California, Los Angeles and graduated with a master's degree in film - critical studies. In 2003, he and a few computer programmers set up the first pages of MySpace, and the site grew from there. It is currently the most popular social networking website on the Internet, consistently performing in United States web traffic rankings. [1]
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Controversy
The corporate history of MySpace has been a matter of some public dispute. It has been claimed that Tom Anderson's role and image as MySpace founder and "first friend" is a public relations invention.
MySpace parodies
Due to his notoriety on MySpace, Tom has become somewhat of a phenomenon in recent years. Being the most widely recognized face on MySpace has made him the subject of parody among its users, who set up real MySpace accounts oriented around a comical theme or a character stereotype using Tom as the basis, generally featuring a Photoshopped (or sometimes simply decorated using Paint) image from Tom's MySpace profile, with humorous or satirical comments entered in the "About Me" section.
Anti-Tom
During his course as Myspace co-founder Tom has gained some negative publicity from individuals who dislike myspace for a number of reasons. One such website'Myspace Sucks'is dedicated to editing profile pictures of Tom and turning them into "funny and sometimes shocking artwork".
Cultural references
- Comedian Lisa Lampanelli made reference to Tom during the 2006 Comedy Central roast of William Shatner, calling a fellow comic "so unlikeable, that on MySpace, Tom won't even be his friend."
- T-shirts reading "I have more friends than Tom!", or "Tom is NOT my friend!", as well as "Tom is my ONLY friend", lampoon the number of "friends" in Tom's MySpace network.
- In the song "New Friend Request" by the popular rap/punk group Gym Class Heroes the lead singer Travis McCoy depicts how he met a girl on MySpace with the lines "My man Tom introduced us but I was too shy to say Hi".
- On an episode of MTV's Yo Momma, Harp made a joke about his opponent's mom regarding Tom and his friends on his Myspace account.
- In the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "White and Nerdy", Yankovic's character mentions having a "totally pimped out" MySpace page. In the video, Tom can be seen in the friends section, among Napoleon Dynamite, Albert Einstein, and Bill Gates.
- The character Frank on the FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia only has one friend on his Myspace page, Tom.
- The British comedian Russell Brand personally thanked Tom for all his help and "being there from day one" at his exclusive MySpace gig in London
- On VH1's 40 Greatest Internet Superstars, Tom placed 9th in the list of stars. He was referenced throughout the segment as the creator of MySpace.
External links
- Tom Anderson at MySpace.
