The real secret to using it just for family and friends is to stay off the pages that are specific in support of particular place or event. If you don't read or even subscribe to the Disney Facebook Page, for example, you will never have to deal with the opinion of others that you don't even know. It's sort of like discussion forums where you are working with hundreds of people that you don't even know. I have used Facebook primarily as a communication devise when I want to inform or ask all my Friends about something that is relevant to them and myself. I have been on it for years and I have friended only 32 people, those are the ones I want to communicate with and no one else. They are family and actual friends or acquaintances not a random group of people that I wouldn't know if I walked into them. Used just for that I find it very handy.