There’s no denying the power of Facebook, the social networking site started by a geeky Harvard kid looking to meet chicks and has since turned into one of the most popular sites on the internet. Anyone looking for proof of it’s influence over mainstream media need only to refer to this past weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Betty White, which was the result of a Facebook plea.
Congressman Gregory Meeks posing by the desk where the Health Care Reform ask was signed.
Lately, politicians have been using Facebook as a way to directly connect with their constituents. I friended Congressman Greg Meeks a month or two ago, breaking my strict rule that Facebook should be for personal frienemy stalking and Farmville (I’m friends with Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz, but only because he helps with my farm). It’s easy to mix business with pleasure on the site, and it’s also an easy way for politicians, who can easily be seen as out of touch, to pretend to be connected to the people who elected them.
At press time, Meeks boasts 3,064 friends on the site–a large number, until compared with neighboring Congressman (and Bill Maher darling) Anthony Weiner, who has 4,725. Weiner, who Mike Drury described so perfectly in this week’s post, may have exactly what Meeks’ wants–not just a lot of Facebook friends, but a recognizable name and face outside of New York.
Weiner’s pictures, although significantly fewer than Meeks’, show a well-edited reflection of his place in the public eye. His photo with President Obama is a candid shot of the two of them speaking. Meeks has multiple photos with Obama, seeming not so much more in-the-know but more desperate to seem important.
please love me
Whether or not these photos represent the true situation down in DC is a moot point–people’s lives on the internet can sometimes overwrite reality. And when all the people in your district have is a page on a social networking site, they’ll believe what they see.