Facebook etiquette question

[luckyjimm]

I'm on Facebook but only have around 10 friends connected to my profile, all of them current friends. I just had an 'add' request from a girl I went to school with. I've seen her no more than a half dozen times in the last ten years, I don't remember any specific occasion but around Christmas in the pub in the town I went to school. I can't remember any conversations with her, though they must have happened. We were never friends, though her mother worked as a teacher alongside my mother at another school, and I had a pleasant conversation with her brother about four years ago.

I want to turn down her 'add' request. She'll have seen my profile on the page of my oldest friend who she's in touch with. I don't buy into this idea of linking to every single person you ever met even if you're not friends and no longer in touch. Why should she be able to see into my life (and I into hers?).

Can I just turn down her request, or would that be a ridiculous slight? Should I just accept the add, and realise the whole thing doesn't matter a nickel?