Why do we Join Facebook?

I recently joined Facebook and I am surprised at how many of my contacts are already on. I find it very interesting at how ready people are in adopting this networking medium. I got curious about the parameters that bring us social networking. Here are my thoughts on Facebook:

• We spend so much time at school and at work that our lives seem to be so isolated from the folks we know. So we want to know what others are up to. We crave connections.
• We want others to know what we are up to as well, our thoughts and our feelings. We put up “Twitter-like” statements about ourselves when we “update our status”. We put up our photos. We write “notes” (blog entries) for our friends. Self expression? Sure - “Hello World! I am here. This Is who I am.”
• We want a sense of connective-ness with others, we like the feeling that there are others who interact with us as unique individuals. We write on each other's “walls”, we “poke” or “super poke” each other. We start up virtual aquariums and give each other fishes. Others give cupcakes, hatch eggs, give gifts, draw graffiti .. the list goes on.
• We like the convenience of it. We can login from anywhere (even on a mobile device) and feel the connection right away. No fuss, no hassles and geographically independent.
• We join groups. We want to be in touch. We want to be informed, involved.
• We (some of us really) want the world to know how many friends we have and who they are.
• We share photos of ourselves and of our friends. We share where we have been and what we have been doing. We get a thrill out of the social ritual of commenting on each other's pictures.

Through our electronic interactions with our friends and the information that we volunteer on its pages, are we putting too much of our identities on a publicly accessible media that is in fact a permanent record of our lives? What dangers does that entail? Is that a invitation for identity theft? How concerned should we be? Where shall we draw the line in defense of our privacy?

On the other hand, as the world trends towards bigger social networks and if we choose to remain “off the grid”, does that eventually put us at a social disadvantage? Will that “isolationist behavior” translates to real issues for our relationships and for our jobs one day?