Exactly - and anyone on HN should be easily able to use the Friend Lists stuff within facebook. Chat Status, Privacy settings and just the ability to filter do

Exactly - and anyone on HN should be easily able to use the Friend Lists stuff within facebook. Chat Status, Privacy settings and just the ability to filter down into smaller subsets.. So while I am 'friends' with 320 people.. I see almost everything from the people I'm truly close with, while occasionally dipping into the greater stream from of other acquaintances. While facebook could do some better outreach on some of this stuff (my Dad was overjoyed to find out last week you can block applications -- no more farmville in the news feed), we on HN should be able to use it properly. There's plenty of reasons to complain about fb, but cheapening friendship is not one of them.. it is completely about how you use the tool. Also - (at least among my general circle - mid 20's, Australia, almost completely non-tech) - Serious personal conversation is now almost predominately facebook. Almost every party (excluding weddings/engagements) is a FB event (with maybe SMS invites). IM = Facebook chat. And email = Facebook PM.