I do value your opinion on the matter and I know others share it and will use it as lightly and productively as they might use some other more specialized site. But the potential for the things I mentioned and that you summarized quite well, is alarming. And believe it or not, quite common.

Even if I hadn't been paying attention to the news reports on the matter in the past two years, just going by the few people I know that use it and people I know of through other people, there are already examples of some of the problems I mentioned closer to home than I would have previously anticipated. Anyway, I know some otherwise pretty normal people that use Facebook in some pretty strange (maybe "bizarre") ways. Even one who I'd say neglected her kids because of it (and more to that story which I won't get into).

Most of these social sites at one time or another were more popular in some centres than others. Facebook was enormously popular in the Toronto area long before it hit it big elsewhere. Shockingly disproportionate stats from what I remember. It got to such a head that any office having anything to do with the government of Ontario or the municipality of Toronto blocked it. This was already quite a few years ago.

Anyway, they're just not my type of site, just like back in the day I didn't frequent the "hot or not" sites (there's probably a module for Facebook that does that too right?) I prefer to see friends in person when we can. Things like photos get sent via email to some people and put on a photo sharing site. Of course my wife puts photos onto Facebook.