Have to tell you, beware of the applications. If you refuse to play any games, or get involved in any of the other fun (yet extremely time consuming) aspects of facebook, you will do fine.
To tell you the truth I find it to be a great tool to keep in touch with other people.

I agree, beware of the applications….you don’t need them, they are are waste of time. Every Zombie or Vampire application or any other silly one that some well meaning friend sends you, just either ignore it or block it permanently.
Facebook is worth it – and it doesn’t take much time, I go on the front page to see what my friends are up to, see if there are any B-days and that is about it.
I upload pics via my blackberry, and that’s about it. You can keep it fairly simple.
What need application that I have found is making a fan page for my blog.
For instance my fan page for http://www.ministrybestpractices.com is:
http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Ministry-Best-Practices/38112275728
This has been a very good compliment to the blog.

I agree w/ Chad about avoiding the applications. Keep it simple. Joshua Harris gave it a try and closed his account in a week http://www.joshharris.com/2007/08/my_one_and_only_week_on_facebo_1.php
Despite that, it is an awesome tool to find old friends and keep in touch w/ those who have moved.

Yup ! No applications.
Facebook is great for birthdays, though.

Ditto to all the above.

Justin,
It’s a great site for networking and getting in touch with people you haven’t seen in a long time. For me, it consumed way too much time during the evening, so I gave it up.
http://kowalkerjourney.com/2008/08/09/wow-facebook-is-addictive/

Soon you will not be able to buy or sell anything without a facebook account… :P

Welcome to facebook! What I’ve found is that it only sucks up as much time as you allow it to. I only spend a little time there 2-3 times a week and I’m very intentional when I do visit my facebook account. Intentionality and discipline are the key. I try to maximize its strengths in minimal visits.
Welcome to facebook!

i’ve actually enjoyed using Facebook over the past 18 months (i never thought i’d say that of a social networking tool), and found it an effective means of keeping contact particularly with younger (school- and college-age) friends, many of whom are quite active users. i’ve found that using RSS feeds makes Facebook far less time-consuming: you can subscribe to feeds for notifications, friends’ updates, notes, and posts. You’ll see more of these items in less time by doing so.

Thanks for the helpful thoughts!

Facebook’s a great tool once you weed out all the “junk” applications. In the 6 months I’ve been on it, I’ve reconnected with old friends and even used it as an outreach tool for my non-Christian friends and family to learn more about my relationship with Christ. I was surprised to hear how much of what I’ve shared actually “sticks” in people’s heads. Didn’t Paul tailor his evangelism to suit his various audiences?

Hey Justin,
Since I work at Facebook, I am partial. I will say this, I disagree with what people have said about app’s. I work for Platform here, and they give their whole time to make App’s fun and just another tool to connect with friends. There are some that aren’t that great, but I have totally used the application part of Facebook and find it fun and I dare say…meaningful.
Facebook gives us all a tool to connect and share with our friends but also, I think, to learn more about ourselves in the process.
Hope you are enjoying it!
AnneMarie