Amen brother -- I miss those days -- run all day, party till the sun came up, then sleep it off for a couple hours till we had to shower up and get open -- 
I also think the real purpose of those sites is based on what they offer...
With our version of the 'social network' I mainly enabled it because it would allow our members to create a profile and an "about me" page if they wanted -- so that others could learn about them or even see 'their own twist' on things -- That's part of the reason we limited some of the features on our version -- make it simple, keep it fast -- but still allow the members their own little 'corner' of the site for others to see (but only if that member chooses to sign up and create that profile).
One of the neat things about the Ning Social Networks is that when a member creates their profile, it has a simple interface where that member can change the look of their own profile -- essentially turning it into their own 'page' on the site instead of following the colors we laid out for the rest of it. This can be done after you login, click the "My Settings" link in the box where you logged in (it changes after you're signed in) and then there should be an "Appearance" tab somewhere in your page -- this will allow you to pick a totally different theme, and if you're really creative (or brave) you can even hack some of the CSS code to really change things up. It's sort of like MySpace, but much easier, and much more stable, in my opinion --