Start Tweeting, Nancy Pelosi!

UPDATE 10/4/2010: Speaker Pelosi is on Twitter @SpeakerPelosi. Follow her here!

Social networking, once a fad for high school students on MySpace, is now ubiquitous around the globe. Politicians are taking notice, from President Obama (whose Twitter handle, I must confess, was until recently updated by a young woman I know from my college activism days) to House Republican leader John Boehner. But many key political figures (ahem, Speaker Pelosi) have yet to jump on the new media wagon, and it's time they did. Democrats, for instance, have a majority in Congress but are seriously underrepresented in social media.

Now, don't get me wrong -- social networking can be a headache. Did I remember to update my Facebook status today? When's the last time I posted a witty comment on Twitter? Is my future boss currently viewing my photos from freshman year? Five years ago, none of these questions would have ever occurred to me, much less permeated my thoughts on a too-frequent basis.

But social networking also serves a higher purpose: democratizing communication. The internet may not be available to everyone (although the FCC's recent announcement about expanding internet coverage to poor communities is a step in the right direction), but it's certainly more accessible than, say, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's D.C. office. Sign the petition urging Pelosi to start tweeting. Republicans not only have more followers on Twitter, they have more tweets. Which means more opportunity to get their message out.

According to a 2008 study, 96 percent of urban youth in America have consistent internet access at school, home, or work; 42 percent go online every day. And after checking their email, the second most common online activity for these youth is -- you guessed it -- visiting social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. For the 92 percent of young urban residents who own a cell phone, participating in online communities is even easier; a Twitter update, for instance, can be sent as a text message and posted instantly online. These are the same people who are choosing not to subscribe to daily newspapers like their parents and grandparents once did.

A Southern Political Science Association report finds that while "wealthy citizens are considered overrepresented in civic and political engagement," social networking could counter this trend. "Internet communication is immediate, inexpensive and interactive," writes author Dana King. "Social networks and internet engagement are not resource intensive, could be low-conflict, and offer collective and cooperative engagement."

In addition to being easily accessible and appealing to an audience that is otherwise politically disenfranchised, the most prevalent social networking platforms -- Facebook, MySpace and Twitter -- are free to users, meaning that anyone with an internet connection and an email address can create a profile and start connecting. So what's stopping all of our elected officials, those titans of democracy, those stalwart representatives of the people, from climbing on board? It's time our senators and representatives put their fear of technology behind them and joined the new century.

You can find out if your members of Congress are on Twitter by visiting TweetCongress.com.

Photo credit: Speaker Pelosi