Researchers who plodded through more than 6,000 Twitter postings by members of Congress, including Hawai'i's Neil Abercrombie, have found — surprise! — that politicians spend most of their time on Twitter promoting themselves.

The study was designed to determine whether the social networking revolution — and specifically, the arrival of Twitter — had opened a new era of dialogue between elected leaders and the public.

But the University of Maryland team found that 80 percent of the postings fell into two categories: links to news articles and press releases, mostly self-serving and readily available elsewhere, and status updates that chronicle the politician's latest trip to the sawmill or supermarket.

For example, this dispatch from Democrat Abercrombie: "just completed weight-lifting workout at the Nuuanu Y."

Or this, from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa: "I will b intrvud on AgriTalk at 10amCST. Pls tune in."

By contrast, the researchers found that members of Congress spent just 7 percent of their time interacting with citizens.

"Twitter by its nature is a very self-absorbed service," said Jennifer Golbeck, lead researcher and assistant professor in the university's College of Information Studies. "Politicians are very self-important people."

The team reviewed every congressional Twitter post through February. They also reviewed postings in June, when Congress was in session, and in August, when it was not.

They concluded that Twitter has yet to fulfill the promise of bringing elected leaders closer to their constituents.

Launched in 2006, Twitter allows users to send reports of no more than 140 characters. Congress members with accounts rose to 169 from 69 in February.