This post ( How University Administrators Should Approach the Facebook: Ten Rules) has been around awhile, but it has some pretty good discussion of what Facebook is, why students use it and why in one form or another it will always be around:

1. The Facebook isn't going away. While Facebook.com may not last forever, a service like the Facebook will always be present and useful on a college campus. The logic to this is quite simple: students are forced to renegotiate their social networks every semester. The Facebook supports and answers the student's information needs. Put simply, our students are curious; they want to know anything and everything about the students around them. If you had the Facebook when you were an undergrad, wouldn't you have wanted the same?

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3. Students are not being cautious regarding their private information in the Facebook. I found that less than 5% of UNC Freshmen on the Facebook protect their accounts from strangers. In a previous study (An Evaluation.., Stutzman, 2005), I asked students their opinions on privacy in Social Networking Communities (Facebook, Friendster, MySpace). I found very mixed results. Students believe they should protect their privacy, but they aren't actually doing it.

4. Students may do stupid things on the Facebook. Really stupid things. However, aren't mistakes something we all make? The critical difference I concede is that anything they say or do can be copied from the Facebook and rebroadcast elsewhere. I've had numerous conversations with reporters who tell me they do background work with the Facebook. Everyone from the campus police to the Secret Service is looking at the Facebook. The problem is twofold: students may do stupid things, but we don't want those stupid things to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Criminal records can be expunged; search engine caches may not. We need to create a mindfulness of this possibility.