I use Facebook mainly as a means of staying in touch with friends and relatives that are far away from us. With being a military family, we have had to move a few times and all of our moves have been away from where our family is at. Facebook is a nice easy way to share pictures of what’s happening in our lives, of our son as he grows and participates in different things, and to share quick little updates (such as our son getting straight As, or something like that). There are some people I will always check to see what’s going on in their lives. I’ll go to their page and see if they’ve had any recent posts or updates.
As for privacy, all of my stuff is set so that only friends can see it and I’m pretty selective of who I add as a friend. Even with my privacy settings set to friends only, I don’t post anything I wouldn’t want anyone else to see (such as my employer) because I think even with the privacy settings, posting something on Facebook (or anywhere else on the internet) doesn’t really offer true privacy.