It’s worthwhile if you have friends who move around a lot. It’s been great to know that I can get in touch with people, even if they change jobs, move across the world… the business card is dead!
Facebook is really shallow and lacks personality the more you get into it. I used to use it quite a bit, but slowly faded as it’s just too blah for my tastes.
I’ve found that it has one great thing of value to me: a place to get in touch with people without having to remember email addresses or phone numbers, or worry about losing them. I basically use it as glorified PDA. Other than that, meh. I might look in for some planning of outings with friends, but really nothing else.
My Mother worries about me a little, though she is not overbearing about it. By updating my Facebook status everyday, or whenever something significant happens, she has some idea of what I’m doing and that I’m ok. By the same token I get an insight into my other friends lives by reading their status. I know that fiend 1 is a bit hung over, that friend 2 is enjoying their holiday, and that friend 3 is sick of being constantly away from home. It’s a way for me to keep a tenuous grasp on friends that would otherwise have disappeared into the big wide world.
It’s probably quite relevant that I work in an industry that is very mobile, people come and go from work and end up scattered across the world. I don’t like phoning people and I’m slack with emailing so Facebook allows me to maintain a level of contact that doesn’t require actual conversations etc.
Having said that, I don’t actually DO anything with it, it’s just there.
Count me in with those who can’t seem to make it DO anything. For example: I got little messages telling me a friend updated our relationship status. Nifty!..but I can’t really find a menu that lets me do that. I tried to join my university network, but it wanted me to input an university e-mail which I don’t have anymore since I left Uni. Keep in mind that I also don’t know where to find my friends so that I could add them. I’m starting to feel a bit luddite, looking at the site taunting me with its shiny toys that I can’t access.
Well, I did manage to leave a “wall post” (for whatever purpose) for one of my friends, and I also to join the SDMB group, so not all hope is lost, I guess.
It comes in useful for running across old high school and college mates, and keeping up with coworkers. Usually ‘Wow, that’s what you’re doing now’ type of encounters.
Scrabulous.
That’s about it. 