Should I join Facebook?

[Alex]

Joining facebook really depends more on personal convictions than what your friends say. When joining, you take certain risks and make certain assumptions, such as "your data will be safe"; it is always possible for someone to hack into your account and steal your personal data. Also, unless you configure it otherwise, facebook is likely to flood your email inbox with useless messages that you could have received simply by logging in. Also, not that facebook uses your data for market research, and keeps it on their servers indefinately. Deactivating your account is simply not enough. In order to remove the data, you must delete EVERY SINGLE photo and comment individually, a process that can take weeks or even months if you've been using facebook a while.

If you are OK with all of this, then facebook is really quite useful for keeping in touch and planning events with friends. Oh, and since you're 13, you have to be sure to ask your parents.