For those of you not familiar with Myspace, the social networking website, it’s a place where anyone can carve out a small piece of the internet by making an information page about … YOU. You can add personal pictures, music, videos, things you like, and things you don’t. Many people list political preference, and some even choose to make huge political statements with their page. Upon completion of your “personal profile”, you venture out into the Myspace world and find friends…people that appeal to you based on the same interests. It’s a running joke that, in the end, the person with the most friends wins.

The numbers can be argued, but the fact that there are somewhere between 80 to 100 Million subscribers signed up on Myspace has not gone unnoticed by the staffers, who are probably Myspacers themselves, of the Presidential Candidates. Almost every candidate now has an Official Myspace Page. Afterall, considering the huge age demographic changes that Myspace has recently undergone, one would be foolish to ignore a great place to advertise freely and gather supporters and friends.

According to the website Techweb: “more than half of the visitors to MySpace are reportedly 35 years old or older, a surprising statistic given the media attention the site has received as an Internet hangout for teens and young adults.

A recent analysis of the users of leading social networking sites found significant shifts in MySpace’s demographics while the site grew dramatically over the last year, ComScore Networks said. In August, children and teens from 12 years old to 17 years old accounted for 11.9 percent of all visitors, compared with 24.7 percent the same month a year ago.

Meanwhile, the portion of older MySpace users has grown to 51.6 percent age 35 or older, ComScore said. Add visitors age 25 or older, and the amount increases to 68.3 percent. Last year, half the site’s visitors were at least 25 years old.

The shift in demographics reflects the “mainstream effect,” ComScore analyst Andrew Lipsman said. As the site gets better known to a broader group of people, it makes sense there would be a greater diversity of age groups visiting.”

It shouldn’t surprise us then to know that there are actually websites out there that are following the 08′ Campaign for President from the technological point of view, and with a vested interest in ” Who will be America’s First TechPresident?”

techPresident.com beckons it’s visitors to sign a petition addressed to the candidates. It begins like this:

“As we enter the 21st Century our country faces daunting challenges. We must address terrorism, global warming, our failing healthcare and public education systems, our dependence on nonrenewable energy resources, and other looming issues. Meanwhile, our 20th Century industrial age economy is losing its ability to sustain our country’s financial health, leading many Americans to fear that we are going in the wrong direction and the next generation will inherit more problems than solutions.

At the same time, we are more connected than ever before and have more access to more information and more tools for identifying and solving problems than any generation in American history, thanks to the Internet.

As we prepare to pick the next President, we’d like to challenge all the candidates running to tell America: How should this public resource be used to make our country more competitive, more democratic, healthier, better educated, more secure and financially sound?

The Internet provides us as a country and as individuals with unparalleled powers to turn information into ideas and ideas into action. It links us to each other, and to our neighbors here as well as around the world, enabling us to organize to solve problems, transform our economy, help foster security, better deliver public services, and build our democracy.” Read the entire petition here

techPresident also graphs, in numbers of friends, the Candidates Myspace pages. I find these comparisons extremely interesting in that it gages the popularity of the candidates among the Myspace populace who have determined they have a preference for one candidate over another, even at this early stage of the game. I’m pretty certain campaign staffers also monitor the numbers of Myspace friends their candidate has for the same exact reasons.

The Myspace Friends Stats from techPresident.com

MySpace friendsDemocrats +/- % #

Obama +13.3% 81,001
Clinton +7.8% 76,914
Edwards +3.8% 36,742
Kucinich +8.7% 18,605
Richardson +1.2% 13,846
Biden +3.3% 9,210
Dodd +4.6% 5,687
Gravel +17.7% 4,012

Republicans +/- % #

McCain +3.9% 32,342
Romney +10.9% 20,731
Paul +27.5% 19,394
Brownback +6.1% 7,634
Hunter +8.3% 4,865
Giuliani +8.9% 4,606
Tancredo +10.9% 1,693
Huckabee +23.5% 1,610

Updated 5/23/2007 - 4:00pm
Trends reflect a one-week window

Mitt Romney’s Myspace Profile

While these numbers may suggest a real lean toward the Democrat party in a group of people that are computer savvy enough to master Myspace, remember they are part of the technological generation. It may also show that many republicans and conservatives have just not mastered strong enough computer skills to have a more significant presence on the web. This in itself, is a trend that is frightening. The Democrat party knows where to find it’s base, and has easy access to them via the internet. But, that’s another whole story for another time.

There is no denying, however, that Mitt Romney more than understands the critical need for continued technological advances and the need for access to the internet and it’s resources, for both economic and educational growth. He has applied it in every aspect of his life, from his successes in his business, his Governorship, the Olympics, and now in his campaign.

I’m sure there are candidates who truly believe that being on Myspace is “cutting edge”. Maybe I’m wrong, but somehow I just don’t think Mitt Romney sees it quite that way. Being America’s First Tech President will come as second nature to him.

MITT ROMNEY ON THE ISSUE OF TECHNOLOGY

“Let’s look at technology. Without serious question, America is the innovation capital of the world.” Mitt Romney

“For Each Poor Child in World: a Laptop” Mitt Romney

Donna L.