I use facebook to stay in touch with family memebers in Afghanistan, every now and then they send a status update if they happen to be near a pc and got a little time, and we can see they are doing... as well as they could given the situation. Also my closest family member is 6 hours in a plane away Facebook does make it easy to see new pics of my nephews and share pictures of my daughter with her grandmother etc etc.

 

I do not have anyone on facebook though that I do not know face to face, I generally prefer to know someone in person then just online so no random people get added to my list.. ever.