There is always a balance between privacy and social connection. If I wanted perfect privacy, I could move to a cabin off the grid in Montana and become a hermit.

I find Facebook a marvelous tool for me to stay in touch with people I care about. I limit my postings to things I would say in polite conversation. I am confident that there is absolutely nothing I have posted in the past 4 years that would give an unflattering or surprising impression of me, nor would it put me at undue risk of financial privacy exposure. Who I am on Facebook is who I am in person. I don't reveal all my information, and I am cautious about who I friend. If a friend's account appears to have been hacked and they do nothing to fix it after I've warned them, I "unfriend" them.

The problem with Facebook and other social networking is not that it de facto risks exposing your private information. Rather it is that people feel like saying more than they would in regular social interactions.

Facebook is no more a "fad" than making friends and keeping in touch with people. Facebook will fade away when something that is easier, works better, and is more secure comes along. Humans like to keep in touch in as many ways as we can. That someone has figured out how to capitalize on our desire for social contact is neither new nor inherently insidious to my mind. There is a risk just as there is a risk at joining a group and making new friends, of dating, and all the other socializing we and our primate cousins and ancestors have done for a million-plus years.

Security is always a concern, but just as it has always been, discretion is the key. Don't say or share things on Facebook you wouldn't say in public, because you are in public! If you don't want to use Facebook, just say it isn't for you. Rationalizing it as some kind of superior position just sounds silly.