Facebook - should I face it??

OK - come on, tell me, everyone - why do I need a Facebook account? I want to know, seriously.

I've been invited by lots of people to join Facebook, and yes, I'm tempted, of course I'm tempted - I don't want to be the only person in the universe left out of something that seems to be so much fun! Or does it? My husband joined recently, under pressure from some new friends (as in, real live friends!) - but having joined, says he can't see the point of it and hardly ever bothers with it.

Being a writer, and spending so many hours on the computer anyway - and having now ditched the day job so that I do have (ahem!) a little more time to explore all these brave new worlds - I'm actually a lot more interested in social networking than he is. But so far, I've held back - and the only reason is that I'm worried about ending up spending all my time on these other pursuits, and actually squeezing my writing time out of existence!

I already have two websites to maintain (one as Olivia Ryan and one in my real name, Sheila Norton), two blogs (I started http://thewritewomanblogspot.blogspot.com before this one), two e-mail accounts, a Snapfish account where I post my photos, and I belong to the RNA forum as well as following lots of other writers' blogs. I know I'm not alone - from what I hear, most writers seem to have at least this amount of 'networking' outlets, if not more - lots now use Twitter, too, as well as Facebook.

I'm not of the generation that has grown up with conducting their entire social life on the internet, and to be honest I wouldn't want that, at all. Like a lot of writers, I enjoy working in solitary confinement (!) and it would be all too easy to do this, neglecting 'real' social interaction and eventually turning into a hermit! But I hope I'm not yet old enough, either, to dismiss everything that's new, different, and technologically (for me!) complicated, as not worth bothering with.

So where does that leave me? I'd like some honest advice from others who, like me, enjoy a bit of social networking on the internet, but don't want to spend half their lives on it. Am I missing out? Should I learn to Facebook, prod, nudge, twit, etc? What are the benefits? Tell me, please!
I'll be very grateful !