What do you think about social network sites like Facebook?

[markhallcohen]

The main thing I hate about facebook is that the user interface is incredibly bad. For example, things show up on your 'wall' (sort of like an unstructured forum), and you often have no way to see the thread that led up to them being there.

The next thing I hate is that they're a bunch of corporate whores. If you've been following the news, they just recently decided it would be ok to invade your privacy by 'auto-sharing' anything that might be commercially useful, like who among your buds said something about a new movie. Monetization coming soon, folks! You have to figure out it's happening, and then manually opt out.

The third bit of bile is directed at social networks in general: A recent Pew study shows that teens are increasingly unable to navigate face to face interactions. While this is mostly a byproduct of texting, social networks have to share the blame.

[juergen]

I do not understand yet what social networks are really good for besides displaying useless data to information junkies. For business networks this is a bit different but regarding the private use I am more scared than everything else.
While 30 years ago people in Germany boycotted the census, they now voluntarily offer far more and pretty sensible data to companies who only have financial interests .
What happens to all that data is not in our hands at all.
And besides that, I see lots of data that can easily be abused in the hands of governments or companies that want to select groups of people for whatever reasons ...

[Indy BJJ]

I wouldn't say that I 'Love' them but they are a great way to convey information to willing masses. They are a good form of digital guerilla marketing for businesses with little or no budget and better for those that do have money and know how to use them.

[handrawn]

neither love nor hate

very useful resource for promotion

very much of a security minefield for those who are unaware of what is necessary to keep safe - that includes both social engineered trojan/malware type stuff and the privacy implications

to stay truly anonymous on the web takes a fair bit of constant [and technical] ducking and diving - these days it is more the breadth of information being gathered and what is being done with is that is of concern - of course it does not help if the person is unaware of the difference between a conversation [in the old fashioned sense] and publishing [which is what you do on the web, like it or not]...

[a4hire]

I have a facebook account and a Twitter account, though I don't use them that often. When I first opened the accounts I used them quite a bit but I guess the thrill wore off. Once in a while I still will use them and maybe post something and see what other people are posting. Forums like this are a kind of social networking.

[StarkkDesigns]

great for expressing yourself!

[Bread Recipe]

For me it is good way to improve social interaction with friends and others who know me and whom I knew as well, it also helps me with my business, because other than words-of-mouth strategy, facebook really helps me with other people to know about my business.

[Cloud]

I prefer to talk to people I know and face to face. Having said that it is very good for business.

[SIMJEN]

I love social networking sites. It’s a great way to keep in touch and a brilliant use of the web.

[gwpriester]

Interesting insights into how Facebook uses user information in Ari Pariser's book The Filter Bubble. You can read a NY Times Book Review here. Also how Google decides what you want to see when you do a search and how things you look at on various websites appear in ads on other sites you visit.