For Gary Sullivan, the web is the best hook-up going. “When I meet new people and ask for their e-mail address, I also ask if they have a MySpace,” says the celebrity publicist, 25, who joined MySpace.com three years ago and clearly rates the new universe it has opened up.

“Everyone’s linked to it,” he says. “You have A-listers on there, the NME editor and film executives, right down to film runners.” He now counts the manager of Oasis among his buddies on the site.

Sullivan belongs to Generation @, those teens and twentysomethings who could toggle before they could toddle, who take multitasking for granted and conduct their social and business lives through hugely popular online networking hangouts such as MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and aSmallWorld. Driven by technology, a generational shift in communication has taken place, and it is creating intriguing patterns of behaviour.

“Young people live in a different world. They can’t stand doing only one thing at a time. They benefit from the net, even build careers out of it,” says Dr Michael Reddy, chairman of the Independent Counselling and Advisory Service, who is researching internet use in the workplace. “Cyber communication gives us another avenue as human beings — it’s social interaction in its own right.”

For a young exec in the music industry, business cards and telephone calls are out the window. For promoters, flyposting is old-school.

“There’s nothing like it,” says Hannah Giannoulis, who runs the live-music Crossover night at London’s Ministry of Sound nightclub and trawls through thousands of MySpace page profiles.

“I am hand-picking people from London, adding them as friends of our own MySpace page, and ending up with a mini database,” she says. “We wouldn’t ask heavy-metal fans, for example, because the night wouldn’t appeal to them. We are offering cheaper entry, vouchers, guest lists, all sorts, and our posters will list our MySpace address.”

The web used to be the place to augment your social life: the odd e-mail, perhaps instant messaging (IM) with friends, even the occasional blog posting. For Generation @, thanks to the innovation of MySpace and sites like it, the web has become their social life. Here is a one-stop connected cocoon of multimedia, where peers can meet, network, forge an identity, plan real-world outings, gossip, flirt, blog, podcast, rant, laugh and commiserate.

The techie bells and whistles laid on free of charge by the website mean that MySpace members can upload cam-phone footage of madcap antics from Saturday night’s party; listen to the latest tune from Franz Ferdinand; send and receive invitations to the hottest gigs in town; exchange the coolest video clips (Dr Suman Biswas and Dr Adam Kay’s obscene London Underground song remains a cult hit after more than 4m downloads); or swap business tips by IM.

“It’s oxygen to them,” said one executive at Bebo, describing the startling array of online tweaks that offer a zillion forms of self-expression.

In a crowded marketplace, each networking website tries to raise the inter-activity stakes: Bebo boasts a distinctive whiteboard that enables members to create crude pictures and artwork to send to each other; the photo-sharing community Piczo lets you jazz up images with speech bubbles; MySpace has a classified-ads section, and makes much of its cachet as a mecca for young bands on the make. The act of personalising your own MySpace is what draws in kindred spirits. Other members seek to become your friend, and you must decide whether to accept or reject a picture link to their profile for your gallery of friends.

In the competitive task of customising your own space, you project an identity to the world: it’s the 21st-century equivalent of a T-shirt with a slogan splashed across the chest. Decorative stars and hearts cascade through the text; winged skulls flap away in the background; the mouse pointer turns into a cherub; gothic fonts signify the spooky outsider. You can also download free home-page templates from www.createblog.com, and import amusing videos and artwork from sites such as www.kontraband.com. The young are no longer mere consumers, but active creators of their virtual world.

Among 13- to 15-year-olds, the web researcher Nielsen/NetRatings says, Piczo was the fastest-growing online brand in the UK last year, with almost half its audience girls under 18. NetRatings reports an active UK membership of 1.5m for Bebo, which also targets schools and colleges in the United States, Australia and Canada. Half are aged 13-19.

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