Kathie, I'm sorry for your loss. I've seen a couple of people who have used Facebook and MySpace to stay connected with loved ones after they've passed and I think it's a very sweet idea.
Personally, the people in my network have used Facebook a couple of times to let us all know when one of our friends have passed and to just keep us up to date on events or happenings in our circle. It's much easier and quicker to post something on Facebook than to try to remember who needs to know and contact a few and have them pass it on (very old school...lol). Whereas before, it might take a while for the news to get around, now it only takes a minute or two. It's the whole 1 to many idea. Gotta love it just for that
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Marian, I feel the same way about all of the Facebook "garbage" and I don't hang out there very much at all. I have notices that come into my email letting me know when someone writes on my wall or has sent me a message and then I'll go in to see what's going on. But I do love it for reconnecting me to sooooo many of my OLD friends...people I've lost touch with over the years. I'm the same way about my personal email address (Yahoo). I can't even remember the last time I checked it. Again, well meaning friends can get to be a bit annoying with all the jokes and chain letters and such. I finally created a "professional" account that only a very small select few are aware of and know NOT to give my address out (i.e. my mom and a couple of friends that double as clients. Same with Twitter. Most people know that I'm on Twitter, but I don't invite any personal friends to "meet" me there and probably wouldn't follow them if they were on Twitter because I try to use it on a more professional level and don't want it cluttered with a bunch of personal tweets (although I do have a couple of "guilty pleasures" that I do like to follow
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I haven't even gone the Facebook route on a professional level, but some people seem to find value in it. Rather than giving clients the wrong idea about your lack of knowledge or interest regarding social media (as you said it's not that you can't, it's more that you won't), maybe you could at least learn more about how to use it from a business perspective so that you could at least provide the service to clients who want that or be able to explain it to them and then let them know it's not something you care to get into but you can outsource it to another VA.