You are looking at a screen shot of the official Facebook page of Steven Chu, our Nation's Energy Secretary. What is remarkable about it is that it is indistinguishable from any normal user's facebook page. His Info tab informs us that he likes biking, cooking and doing crossword puzzles, and his favorite movie is Casablanca. His Photos tab shows him as a baby and as a nerdy graduate student. His Wall is full of links about energy efficiency, his daily show appearance and other you tube videos of him. Also, the amount of first person noun usage is high through out the page. For example, he says: " In case you missed it, here's my interview with Jon Stewart from last night's Daily Show. Let me know what you think." I don't believe that our energy secretary is updating his facebook page while he is supposed to be going over some policy document at the DOE, so someone must be charged with keeping this up but obviously Chu has to be somewhat involved given the level of detail.
Contrast his page with that of Robert Gates, secretary of defense:
Note the distinguished picture with the American flag in the background, the sparse Info, and the Wall which only shows news articles that he has been in. My other favorite cabinet member, Hillary Clinton, has an even more minimalist page.
Why is Steve Chu's page so familiar? Is it a strategy to bring energy policy into the consciousness of young people? Is he trying to make government more friendly and accessible? Does he just want people to like him? If any of those reasons is the case, he seems to be doing a pretty good job of it. Check him out on the Daily Show last week:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Steven Chu | ||||
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