Facebook is a social networking platform that started out as a college networking website called “thefacebook”. It became so successful, that it is now the largest of the networking sites, with the runner up being Myspace. Facebook has expanded to include anyone and everyone.

Be “real”. The whole point of this site is to connect and stay in touch through the power of technology. You need to use your real name and a real picture of yourself. What’s the point of using a fake name and / or picture unless you are trying to portray yourself to be someone you are not? I would then ask, what’s your real purpose to be on Facebook? With that being said here are some tips to help you make the most of your Facebook experience.

Understand and set your privacy settings. Do not leave the default Facebook privacy settings as set. You need to go in and customize your privacy, as well as revisit the settings periodically because Facebook adds new features and will make decisions about settings which you may or may not like.

• Search Settings - You can be searched on Facebook by anyone until you set who can or cannot find you. Most people will keep this set to everyone, so there is no chance of missing a contact. But beware, that also means your list could grow with a lot of unwanted friend requests.
• Personal and Contact Settings - Just because Facebook provides all of these fields on your profile and lets you know it’s not completely filled out does not mean you have to fill in each section.
• Photo Settings - Photos are very personal. So be cautious of who you allow to view your photo albums. Some users have family and co-workers as their friends and the last thing you need is for someone ‘tag’ you in a photo for all to see. Also, some pictures may be only for certain people to see. Create your photo albums with privacy settings. The settings can be changed in the future if you want but it is always best to limit who can see the more intimate moments of your life. Keep in mind, even if you delete a photo, that photo will remain on Facebook’s servers 16 months later.
• Do Not Feel Obligated to Over Share - Be conservative and set your profile to a limited version which allows certain people to see certain things. Things like your home address, your family members, and your birthday are all easy pickings for identity thieves. It's harder to retract information than to simply not share it to begin with.

To have a ton of friends or not?  You do not have to accept every person that wants to be your friend on Facebook. You have the ability to reject them, ignore them or block them; people are not notified when you reject their friend request. Facebook has grown so much and yes, this platform is for social networking and for meeting new people, but there still needs to be limits.

• Once you hit 5000 people, anyone that tries to send you a friend request will see a “So and So already has too many friends” message.
• Sending too many friend requests to people you don’t know will trigger Facebook to deem you as suspicious and you will start to receive warnings such as “This Request Can’t Be Sent”. If you disregard these warnings and keep sending requests, Facebook will take away your rights to send requests and messages for a period of time.
• Be extra cautious of what you click on from "friends" you don't recognize. Messages that are brief and cryptic or come from those you don't expect to hear from might be worms that include links to dangerous sites.

Facebook has introduced ‘Facebook Places’.  This allows users to add (or check in) their current location to their status updates. I am sure this can be beneficial to some but be cautious as well. Announcing on your wall, or any public wall for that matter, where you are going or plan to go, opens the door for cyber stalkers. They are a real threat and if you have one this tells them where to find you in real life.

• You don’t want your privacy compromised, but don’t forget about that of others. Never ‘check in’ at your house, someone else’s house or your kid’s school. And certainly never check in with someone else without their permission.

Facebook applications may look fun and interesting to be a part of but think twice before taking the next survey or allowing the next Farmville user to invite you into their world. A lot of the popular apps transmit personal user information to outside servers. And those companies will collect this information and sell them to ad firms. Even though Facebook took immediate action and disabled several such applications, some still remain. Whenever you OK a new application, you are essentially handing over your private data.

Privacy, safety and security are critical issues to consider when using any technology including Facebook. Use your common sense when deciding what to do and what not to do.