Here's a reply I sent to a friend of a friend (whom I've never met to my knowledge .. pardon my bad memory if I have!) that explains my thoughts on the issue for my part:
Hi,
I appreciate your friend request. The web is such a wonderful enabler for serendipitous connections - which often prove to be immensely valuable! I find it quite interesting to see & follow how the social media scene is in a turbulent phase of development, how practices to use different tools are evolving continuously and quite rapidly - and how different people use different tools and services so .. well, differently. As for me and connecting with people online: While I like to establish connections with new interesting people in many services I use -- I think that that's really the only way to allow the power of serendipity (The Long Tail, really) to kick in -- I realize that Facebook for me is essentially a place to foster connections I've created elsewhere (in the physical world, other social media services, FB groups, etc). For me it's a question of privacy and different spheres if intimacy. But as said, I'm always open to connecting with new interesting people. My preferred mode of connecting with new people is microblogging: I can be found at http://twitter.com/jaakkoh and http://identi.ca/jaakkoh & http://jaakkoh.jaiku.com (for opensource alternatives). Of these Twitter is my current "de facto standard" of online discussions. Other social media services I use can be found via my Google Profile. Cheers, -Jaakko
