Facebook is a great way to communicate with all your friends at one time. My friend used it to post updates about his prostate surgery, rather than contacting everyone individually. It gave him a place to collect together all the positive thoughts they were sending him. It was a warm moment that made me realize what was best about Facebook.
But in May of 2010, many Facebook members also experienced a very painful situation. They received messages about a friend's recommendation of a mysterious page on Facebook - but the page was just filled with instructions. It advised them to see the funny web page, they'd have to paste its JavaScript code into their browser's address bar. It turns out the page wasn't entertaining, and it wasn't really even recommended by their friends. It was a malicious virus code, which would invade their contact list, and e-mail every one of their Facebook friends, recommending they visit the same page!
This points to a major problem with Facebook itself. Their web site can also amplify your friends' very worst instincts. Facebook's best feature is the way it lets you easily connect with the people you like, but in the end, there's also a downside to that. Because of the way the site works, Facebook could ultimately make you like your friends less!
To be fair, Facebook removes most malicious code the next day - though that also points to one of their problems. With millions of users, it's impossible for them to police every profile. This makes Facebook a very attractive target for anyone who wants to spam users. Unfortunately, sometimes the biggest threat to your privacy seems to be Facebook itself. I've heard that no matter which privacy settings you request, Facebook will throw them away several times a year when they re-design the site's software.
The other annoyances are more trivial. If you comment on a friend's status, Facebook will flood your inbox with a new message alerting whenever anybody else responds. Suddenly you're forced to confront a painful truth: you weren't that interested in this topic in the first place. And you're forced to see all the lame-o's who have somehow gotten onto your friends' own list of Facebook friends. If your friend is a heavy user, they may have over 100 distant acquaintances - and you'll be getting a message from Facebook every time one of them decides to join your comment with one of their own!
It seems like everyone has experienced both the best and the worst of Facebook. Once a church even tried to attract more interest from teenagers by putting up a billboard with a picture of two Facebook friend requests: one from Jesus, and one from the Devil. But within a few days, a technology blogger took it one step further, describing the real evil that they could perpetrate on Facebook. "Choose carefully. One of them will clog your inbox with Farmville updates!"