When Mark Z. designed & gave birth to Facebook, he could never considered have all the ramifications his new baby would have on the world.
One of the more recent uses is in the field of employment.
Both people seeking employment and potential employers now use Facebook for a major research tool.
Job seekers primarly use it as it was initially designed for, a networking tool. A place to connect to people & keep their ears to the ground about jobs. Sort of a Linked-In Lite.
Employers, on the other hand, have discovered that Facebook is a dandy tool for finding out what a person is really like outside of the job environment. The half naked, drunken photographs send quite a different impression then the prim & proper one the applicant presented at the interview. Whether it is right or wrong to judge an employees fitness for employment by their outside activities, it is done.
Calling in sick on a Friday or Monday then posting images or narratives about the kickin’ ski trip you just got back from can get you in a heep of trouble.
Talking about or announcing future plans while telling the current employer something completely different is just a bit disingenuous, don’t you think?
Actually, it’s just plain stupid.
A note to employers and other people using Facebook or other Social Networking sites to investigate individuals.
If you run across something that runs counter to what you are being told you do have the OBLIGATION to ask the person in question for an explanation of the disparity. I have run across several instances where research doesn’t reveal all the facts in a situation. By inquiring of the person in question, I was able to easily resolve the disparities to everyones benefit.
Unfortunately, the sites that accumulate information on individuals and sell it probably don’t bother to do this so please be careful in using them.
The (in)famous Whyphotograph's Blog 
Interesting post, Andy. I honestly don’t get FB and Twitter yet I do have accounts on both. I use the FB account to keep up with classmates (just celebrated 30 year reunion) but I can’t honestly remember the list time I sent out a tweet. I think part of the problem is I don’t know how to keep up with tweets. Blogs are easy, I use an RSS reader is there a Tweet reader out there? FWIW the company I work for has a social networking policy. It states that weren’t not supposed to mention the company on social networking sites. I guess I need to update my FB profile to remove my employer from it. Honestly I’d rather be out taking pictures than updating my status of FB :).
Sorry for the delay in reply, class has kept me a bit nuts.
I mainly use fb for 2 things.
A. To meet other photographers an gain an understanding of what makes them tick by their personal photographs and posting. This has been somewhat successful.
B. To squire contact information for potential instructors at Peters Valley Craft Center. This has also proved useful. I acquired 2 instructors for 2010 that I never would have met otherwise.
I’ve also used it, occasionally, to publicize my photography classes an school. I am hoping to increase this use in the coming months.
All in all, fb becomes like a blog without the fancy trappings. Both the fb and this blog are on going experiments.