I'm a relatively late convert to Facebook and up till now I don't really find it to be the kind of addictive social networking site everyone finds it to be. For one thing, the whole process just seems to magnify any sort of strange social problems you have since its online for everyone to see.
Firstly, there is the process of getting friend request. I don't know about you but the during the period where Facebook started getting big and me getting an account, I used to get 3 friend request a day in my email from people. Which always puzzled me because I have no idea how some of these people even got my email or why they thought to add me since most of them hardly talked to me when I was in "semi-contact" with them, i.e. when we were both in school together. I use that term very loosely because often I find myself seriously trying to recall who on earth the person is, especially if the person has a common name. It is only when I look at the list of mutual friends do I gain some sort of recollection about the person but even then its mostly vague.
This might mean that I've just got terrible memory and if that is true, I sincerely apologize to any past friends who come across this and future friends who may be insulted by my memory loss in the future. However, I think the situation is probably something like this: Through some strange means, they found my email and one fine day thought to themselves that they ought to reinforce our bonds of friendship which were not very present in the first place. After which they never followed up from that request when I finally added them back and our existence to each other has remained equally inconsequential - yes, it is as bizarre as it sounds. This is especially so when recently, I've been getting request from a whole bunch of random people that I don't know, who added me because of one mutual friend or through friend finder (again, I have no idea how they got my email. I think I ought to seriously consider my internet privacy).
I don't mean to be overly harsh since I'm sure that this isn't true in all cases but this to me shows desperation and a need to be given worth by the number of pseudo friends on Facebook. This certainly isn't a new phenomena and it was the reason why I left Friendster but the problem seems more widespread in Facebook.
Next, we have the whole requesting for friends problem. This might just be me but I'm always strangely uncomfortable with requesting friends in Facebook, probably because of my own assessment of people who do that. I don't want to appear desperate yet at the same time, I do it anyway because everyone else I know if XX's friend so why the hell not? So yeah, clearly I'm hypocritical.
Ultimately though, despite the various perils I have faced, I still continue to keep my account because everyone is on it. I don't mean that I feel the need to comply with the herd, although I'm sure there is that too but rather, it has become a really convenient medium to do practical things. It really is easier to share photos, plan outings or engage in a bit of voyeurism (not strictly most appropriate word but currently the best word I can think of) with that way too self-indulgent self-portrait album that XX put up. So for now at least, I'm sticking to my Facebook, although it is telling that many of my real life good friends were added late to my account or not added at all.