MPs reluctant to use Facebook and social networking

The more interactive the medium, the less politicans like it, says survey

MPs are wary of social networking

MPs still see technology as a way to get their message out to constituents, rather than an interactive forum to receive input from voters, according to a study by the Hansard Society.

The survey of 168 MPs found that while the overwhelming majority use email in some capacity, only 23 per cent use social networking sites, and only 11 per cent have a blog.

Just eight per cent said they will start blogging while only a further five per cent plan to use social networking tools, mainly because they see the technology as having a "scatter-gun" approach that does not target specific constituents.

"The most widely used digital media are asynchronous and primarily passive in nature, such as web sites," the report found. "The more interactive or real-time the medium, the less likely that it will be used by MPs to communicate with their constituents."

Older MPs were less likely to see the value of social networking – only 18 per cent of MPs born between 1940 and 1960 use the technology, compared with 38 per cent of MPs born after 1960.

The analysis across party lines revealed that Liberal Democrat MPs are more positive about the digital media they use than their Conservative colleagues, particularly when it comes to Web 2.0 technologies, while Labour MPs fall somewhere in between.

MPs from Scotland and Northern Ireland see the least value in the technology that they use, actually rating web-based campaigning as being of negative value.

Overall, 49 per cent of MPs agree or strongly agree that increasing the budget available for hardware would improve their use of digital media, whereas 32 per cent of MPs disagree.

MPs are divided on whether or not they are adequately resourced to use the internet,
but they are overwhelmingly clear that they and their staff need more training.

Famous blogging MPs include minister for transformational government Tom Watson, Conservative MP John Redwood, and Labour MP Tom Harris.

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott has also recently started blogging, as well as posting videos online in response to critics.