1. Reconnecting with friends: Somehow the art of letter writing seems to have died around 1990. I remember in high school and college having several friends with whom I would exchange long, chatty letters on a regular basis. I loved that feeling of getting a fat envelope in the mail and knowing that it contained a letter from someone I cared about!! But somehow after 1990 it's like we all ran out of paper. There are lots of different things you can blame for that, but I think the biggest one is the advent of computers. Most of us by that time either had learned or were learning to use a computer, and that was when more and more people were buying them for home use. Why that meant no one was writing anymore I can't explain, but somehow it did. Yet using email seemed too difficult for many people, and not as personal. Facebook changed all that, especially once older people discovered it. When I first heard about it, everything I heard was negative and seemed to be all about teenagers (granted it was also mostly MySpace I was hearing about, not Facebook). When my eldest entered adolescence I decided to check it out,
and almost instantly loved it!! It's like a combination personal newsletter, bulletin board, and virtual note passing tool. :) I've been able to connect with lots of old friends, people I already knew in real life but with whom I had lost touch, and it's great to feel connected again with these people whom I never stopped caring about...
2. Being able to maintain and grow friendships. This could probably be combined with the first, since it's all about friends, but in the spirit of my Blist format I decided to break it down a bit more. Reconnecting is just the first step, and I'm also connecting with new friends whom I've just met. Facebook is a simple way that we can connect in very real ways--it's like an online party or social gathering, but it never ends and there's no cleanup for the host! Like any real party, yes sometimes there are arguments or hurt feelings, because there are still real people involved. This is just human nature, and not something that can be blamed on Facebook. (This is also why parents insist teens with Facebook have adult supervision--it's not about privacy; it's about protection!) For the most part, however, it's just really fun to be able to socially interact with friends all over the globe in this virtual location! We can laugh over jokes and funny pictures, talk about movies and books, sympathize and pray over medical concerns and family troubles, give advice about new products and new places, rejoice together over victories and accomplishments, tease about whose sports team is the best, discuss political ideas, share news and events, and best of all share lots and lots of pictures!!
3. The Games. Yes, I know people rant about the games, and many people hate them, but I find them fun and harmless diversions. Most can be played absolutely free (the in-game purchases being completely optional), and you can put as much or as little time into them as you wish (unlike those online game "worlds" such as Worlds of Warcraft or Minecraft, which not only cost money to play but where player killers and griefers can destroy or steal what you build or collect, if you don't monitor it carefully and continually). Facebook games are easy to block for those who don't play--I have lots of them blocked myself, so my newsfeed isn't cluttered up with game posts for games I don't want to play. The trick is moderation, like most things--limit yourself to one or two, and limit the daily time you spend on each also, if necessary, but otherwise have fun there is no harm in playing games once in awhile! Like someone said at the Minecraft convention we recently attended (paraphrased), "internet games are simply replacing television for most people, and we see that as a good thing because the games are much more interactive and mentally engaging!" 
4. The new cultural traditions. One of the best, imho, which prompted this very blog, is the "30 days of Thankfulness" in the month of November. Some people joke about it, saying that the rest of the year Facebook is for griping, but it really is a beautiful thing. :) Other fun traditions I've enjoyed are "throwback Thursdays" where people post or re-share photos from earlier years, the occasional "weeks" that pop up from time to time (80s week, 90s week, baby week, and so on), and the 25 days of Christmas Carols in December. Like the games, you can take them or leave them--participation is not at all a requirement of being on Facebook! I really find those fun though, and many are so positive. 
5. Facebook "memes." I don't know if I'm using this modern term in the same way most people understand it, but to me the "memes" are photos or banners that people share, often amusing but sometimes inspirational! Yes, some of them get tiresome after awhile as they seem to be overdone--the "repost if" emotional banners (if you love your daughter,love your son, hate cancer, etc.), "most interesting man in the world" jokes, or the series of blocks put together of "what people think I do, what I really do, etc." But even when I get tired of them, sometimes I'll then see one that genuinely makes me laugh or smile all over again! Many times they are great fun, especially when it's something new that hasn't been done to death. Ultimately I just find Facebook fun, and harmless. People rant about many of these things as being "annoying." Some of these people just don't like change, and the new internet culture, and that's understandable. Others are going to be "wet blankets" at an IRL party just as much as the Facebook virtual one. ;)
One brief postscript--the concern about privacy. I worry a bit about privacy too, but in this day and age I truly think the only people who truly have any semblance of privacy are the amish, and perhaps the people living deep in the jungle. In this internet world, privacy as we knew it before no longer exists, and if you are that worried about it you are probably living in the wrong Country (meaning pretty well any Nation in the "civilized" world). I think the owners of Facebook are doing all they can to protect us and keep their virtual environment as safe as possible, and I appreciate that. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, or change my life around just because someone I don't know might dare to look at my picture or use my family photo for an ad in the Ukraine someday. ;)
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