Sounds like you are friends with the wrong people.
As far as the question in the title, well, it's not really a bother. I set it up in 2005. I haven't updated it really since then (I think it says I'm still in college, despite having been a teacher for 8 years now), and I've never posted a status update. I go on about once a month for five minutes.
So it's not too much work at all.
But the benefits for that tiny amount of work is pretty good - easily have a way to connect to friends that stays up to date (unlike emails, which may not last - e.g. if they have an @cox.net or something and change ISPs, phone numbers that can change, etc.) automatically. Go on and scan once/mo to catch up and see what's going on in people's lives. That's neat.
Sure, you could pick up the phone and call everyone individually, but by going on every once in awhile and checking you can get a brief overview and see who you need to call.
And then being able to go on and message someone you haven't connected with in awhile is quite useful.
That doesn't mean you have to be on FB daily, be posting pictures, status updates, etc. Use it for what it's useful for you, and skip that other stuff. And what it's useful for you might change - you may have a baby and relatives may constantly want pics, and that's an easy way to share it with mass people at once, and the people who don't want to see it can hide those updates. But no one's FORCING you to use it a certain way, or go on it. That doesn't mean it's not worth having an account.
