One thing for sure, though, is that social media gives a voice where there was none in the past, except for that one day every four years where one could express one's opinion through voting. I agree with the findings you mention in this post, and your disappointment attending the Facebook event. From what I've seen so far, politicians use social media mainly as yet another platform to send unidirectional messages to wider or different audiences. There is very little "engagement" on true conversations, for that matter. Nevertheless, there are odd exceptions that I hope will become more mainstream, where politicians and their communications teams, actually take time to answer or survey what folks think via twitter or Facebook. But for now, good examples are still few and far in between…