By Daniella Bordonaro

Everyone, it seems, is on Facebook now.

The social networking site currently has more than 250 million users,  about a third of whom are in the United States. The fastest growing segment of Facebook newbies is college educated, and in the 35-54 year old age group.

(In fact, this age group accelerated in Facebook use in the second half of 2008 by nearly 300 percent.)

And they're mostly women. But we're hearing from lots of you that Facebook can be an intimidating site with the wall writing, poking, picture updates, and messages. I want to change that. I want to make it less intense and more user-friendly.

The first step into entering the Facebook world is your profile and learning how to friend someone. Your profile is, in a way, your virtual self. It contains a picture of you, basic information such as name, hometown, sex, and birthday. You can include more information too. For example, your interests, favorite movies, favorite books, quotations, contact information, employment, and high school and college you attended.

Remember, YOU DON'T HAVE TO provide information in all these fields. However, by really “beefing up” your profile, you become a more unique contact.

Most important, though, is that through your profile, members are able to “friend” you. How do you friend? All you need is the first and last name of a person. If say your friend's name is "John Smith," you may need some more information like town or school. The less information you have, the harder it is to actually find the person.

Once you have your desired friend’s information, insert it into the search bar. Results will come up. By scrolling up and down, pictures and basic information are presented so you find the correct individual. Once you’ve found him or her, you click Add as Friend. The lucky person will receive an e-mail from Facebook saying “so and so wants to be your friend."

The next time he/she signs into Facebook they have the choice of Confirming or Ignoring your “friend request."

A lot of people ask: What do I do if I get a friend request from someone I'd prefer not to be friends with? Just click Ignore. The "rejected" friend doesn't get a rejection slip or anything; but his or her face and the request leaves your request inbox. Remember, you don't have to be friends with everyone who requests it. 

Once a friendship is established, many actions happen. For example, sometimes the new friendship will be presented on the mini-feed, you will find out similar friends between you and the new friend, and be able to chat, send messages and write on this person’s wall.

If you find yourself overwhelmed with the number of friends on your feed, you can click Hide to the right of your friend's updates, and this will remove that friend from your feed.

All in all, profile-making and friending are your first key steps into Facebook madness.

But first, you may want to ask yourself whether you really want to hear from all the people in your past. Because once you're on Facebook, you surely will.

Part two: Daniella explains how to keep face on Facebook.

Facebook Fallout Washington Post story on viruses transmitted through Facebook and MySpace

At Huffingtonpost, Kimberly Brooks blogs on Facebook and the Death of Mystery

In the New York Times, Randall Stross asks: When Everyone's a Friend, Is Anything Private?