This is an interesting subject to me. My teen and 20’s children all hold very much from R’Wallerstein’s position on Facebook, and wouldn’t go near it. For me, it’s a fun, easy way to keep in touch with myriad people from various parts of my life in one shot.
Facebook allows you to set up lists, which consist of groups of people, such as a group for your family, coworkers, friends from school, etc. Then, you can set privacy rights where, for instance, your family can see more then your coworkers. And they’re enhancing the privacy settings as well. When I post pictures (mostly old pictures that are relevant only to a small group of my [real world] friends), I set the settings on those pictures so only that group can see them, and the pictures aren’t even visible to my friends friends.
Just like you wouldn’t tell a friend in the middle of a store “we’re going on vacation for a week tomorrow”, you have to use common sense to protect yourself. When we went to Israel, I didn’t post a word about it till I was already back in the USA. Even when I went online from Israel, no one would have known.
Another thing I do is I don’t respond to Friend Requests unless I know who the person is, or know they’re mutual friends of people I trust. Otherwise, that’s what the “ignore” button is for.
Although the access to so many people could push someone OTD, the person referred to above was probably headed that way anyway.