So and so’ added you as a friend on Facebook. We need to confirm that you know ‘so and so’ in order for you to be friends on Facebook.”

If you’re familiar with that phrase, that means you’ve jumped on it too: the Facebook bandwagon.

I joined the social networking site after getting tired of all the friend requests I was getting via e-mail from people. Feeling bad about not accepting, I finally decided to take the plunge.

After being on the site for several months now, I’ve realized, as with many things, Facebook can be a double-edged sword.

One pro of the site is reconnecting with people I’ve lost touch with. Or, should I say, reconnecting with people I want to get back in touch with.

Another pro: seeing what other people are up to. If I could accomplish this voyeuristically, without identifying myself, I’d be perfectly happy. But Facebook doesn’t let you do that. As all Facebook users know, you have to have “skin in the game” — meaning your own Facebook page — in order to see other people’s Facebook pages.

It’s actually a bit of a guilty pleasure to see what other people are doing with their lives — how many kids they’ve had by age 22, who they’re dating, what they’re studying in school. In fact, I like it much more than letting people know what I am doing.

I don’t update my Facebook page often — about once a month, twice if you’re lucky. But sometimes, perhaps if I’m feeling particularly proud or jaded — like a few weeks ago when I posted “Sarah West Miley just conquered a treacherous mountain on her bike only to be slapped in the face with a flat tire at the peak” — I’ll splurge and let all of my 40 Facebook friends know what I’m up to.

It’s amazing who has searched me out and asked to be my Facebook friend: my dad’s cousin whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to since I was a child, the Motocross rider from California I met once and had a crush on when I was a teenager in high school, or the Scottish boy I met at a weeklong church camp nearly 10 years ago.

That brings me to the cons.

After receiving friend requests from past boyfriends, people I haven’t talked to since high school and those who, quite frankly, I don’t care to talk to, I wonder why I’m on the site at all. It makes me question, if I wanted to keep in touch with you, wouldn’t I have?

One friend put it like this after he announced he was shutting down his Facebook page: “If you really want to keep in touch, message me and I’ll give you my number.”

So while Facebook’s appeal has been slightly diminished for me, I remain a rather apathetic user of the service. Still, I can promise I will never be on Twitter. At least until those 40 friends start twisting my arm again.

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com