Facebook presidency?

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Earlier this year, the users of Facebook elected an unknown 28-year-old French man named Arash Derambarsh as the first "worldwide president" of the popular social networking site. Or at least many thought so. It turns out the whole thing was a hoax — and a big embarrassment to the French mainstream media that reported Mr. Derambarsh's elevation to the cyber Oval Office as a fact.

The Facebook fake, however, ran on a laudable platform, inspiring thousands by rising above the politics of the past. He promised to "stimulate tolerance across religions and fight illiteracy," and all those new readers would no doubt help him "turn the page," reaching new levels of political consciousness. Alas, another political dreamer crashes on the rocks of lies and scandal.

Here in this country we may elect a "Facebook" president of our own — at least if voters under 30 have anything to say about it. Sen. Barack Obama is wildly popular with this younger cohort of Americans, many of whom now integrate social networking sites into their lives with the same ease their parents repaired a Loggins and Messina cassette tape. Last week in Pennsylvania's primary, for example, Mr. Obama trounced Sen. Hillary Clinton 60 percent to 40 percent among voters under 30, despite losing overall by nearly 10 points.

Several common denominators connect the popularity of social networking sites for Americans under 30 and the Obama candidacy. Exploring these links helps explain his popularity with younger voters. The most recent issue of Culture, the biannual magazine published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, featured an article titled Social Networking Sites: Mirrors of Contemporary Individualism by Felicia Wu Song, that got me thinking about why Facebook fans also swoon over Mr. Obama.

Part of Facebook's appeal is its promise to rebuild broken communities and repair torn social fabric. Many Americans under 30 grew up in social settings more like the Osbournes than the Ozzie and Harriet households their parents watched on TV. Today, divorce, drugs, two working parents and Simpsons' cynicism better describe the ties that bind the under-30 crowd.

With the ease of a mouse click, social networking Web sites help stitch many disconnected pieces back together. Mr. Obama's rhetoric does much of the same — like chicken soup for the political soul. He understands life has gone haywire for many in this age group. Some worry they will never achieve the same level of economic success as their parents. Others believe presidents always fail, or at least regularly disappoint — what 25-year-old doesn't remember the forced conversations or awkward silence about a White House intern's blue dress. Or that the company or career to which their mom or dad seemingly made a life commitment — often at the expense of missing soccer games or certainly a regular family dinner — shared no reciprocal loyalty.

Facebook connections can't remove disappointment and anxiety, but they can at least numb the pain through entertainment and distraction. Mr. Obama's rhetoric and promises solve similar ills.

Then there is the mixing of consumer and celebrity culture that permeates the under-30 crowd. Despite the societal angst outlined above, many younger Americans spent their formative years in an era of economic good times and materialism. For a lot of them, much of the "pain" of growing up was medicated through buying more stuff. Ms. Song's article reinforces this point. She argues the "success of social-networking sites also suggests that young Americans are comfortable approaching their personal relationships in the mode of consumer." Friends and celebrities occupy and interact in the same social space as never before. Signing up for news feeds about a soap star and keeping up with a sorority sister are now the same from a technological perspective. "As with many other contemporary social practices," Ms. Song writes, "the private and public blur together, the value of intimacy declines and the consumer role is amplified." You can have it all with a high-speed connection — just as Mr. Obama promises our political divisions will melt if we just let him "bring people together." Ms. Song posits that social networking sites are remarkable not because of how they change "the landscape of contemporary social life, but rather how well they succeed in reflecting its essential dynamic." And the same is true for the Facebook candidate. He says he will transform American politics. But when it comes to the under-30 crowd, his popularity is more a reflection of fears, grievances and aspirations than a realistic plan for change.

Gary J. Andres, vice chairman of research and policy for Dutko Worldwide, is a former White House senior lobbyist.