Twitter and ->-bleeped-<- here.
I can't bring myself to join Facebook, with all the stories of drama and employers demanding access to Facebook and stuff it's just easier for me to say to friends and family "tough, email or snail mail take your pick" .
Twitter has been very helpful for me, like pica said it's far faster then any other news aggregate out there. Once you get used to how it works Twitter can be a powerful, and sometimes entertaining tool.
->-bleeped-<- is also another service I use that's much like Twitter but far less limited.