> The sentence you quoted actually is itself an anecdote
No, it is a conclusion drawn from an implied accumulation of anecdote. An actual anecdote would be something like, "when my brother on the other side of the country had a baby, I found out on Facebook, and was thus more connected to him." Ie. it would demonstrate connectedness to someone far away who is cared about deeply.
I think the original author and the poster you replied to probably have very different definitions of "deeply". Facebook doesn't seem very useful for first tier people who get the phone/snail mail/IM/email treatment or third tier people who you don't care to keep up with much, but it has a sweet spot in that second tier. It's usefulness to individual people is probably proportional to how large their second tier is.
No, it is a conclusion drawn from an implied accumulation of anecdote. An actual anecdote would be something like, "when my brother on the other side of the country had a baby, I found out on Facebook, and was thus more connected to him." Ie. it would demonstrate connectedness to someone far away who is cared about deeply.
I think the original author and the poster you replied to probably have very different definitions of "deeply". Facebook doesn't seem very useful for first tier people who get the phone/snail mail/IM/email treatment or third tier people who you don't care to keep up with much, but it has a sweet spot in that second tier. It's usefulness to individual people is probably proportional to how large their second tier is.