Is Facebook a necessary tool for a student? I'm starting a master's degree in the autumn, and I recently received an email from the university inviting me to join the Facebook page for the course.

However, I don't currently have an active Facebook account -- I deleted my account several years ago due to concerns about privacy as well as its overall usefulness.  (Mostly a case of "so why am I spending time on this site?")

Is there any explicit advantage I would get by joining the course's Facebook page, or equivalently, is there any disadvantage of not joining?

EDIT: I understand there is not likely to be an explicit requirement to join the group as official communication will be via email and university websites.  I'm asking more from the point of view of networking, socializing, etc.  Would the lack of Facebook be a handicap?

EDIT: Clarification: By "course" I mean the UK definition: The course is the entire year-long degree program.  In this instance, the department has created a Facebook page for everybody who is doing the same degree program starting this year, and that's what they invited me to.  However, my question applies to other possible applications of Facebook as well.
Is there any explicit advantage I would get by joining the course's Facebook page


If you want to interact with your classmates on Facebook before starting the course, then joining the page would enable this.


  or equivalently, is there any disadvantage of not joining?


If you don't feel a need to do the above, then no. There is no reason to expect this to be any kind of handicap. You will have plenty of chances to interact with your classmates face to face, when the course starts.

Facebook is a useful marketing tool for universities, which is why they invited you to join the page. If you personally don't want to interact with others on Facebook (for very understandable reasons), then there is no need to join the page.