[lehmannro]

I believe your claims but is there any evidence to back it up (and is that possible on fuzzy metrics such as palpable sense of disconnect)?

From your other comments I understand you are from the US and I guess its a wholly different matter across the pond, but I for one cannot reproduce these effects here in Germany. Sure, most -- rough estimate: all -- of my contacts do have accounts on various social networks (me included) but we have never critically relied on it. It never gained quite as much traction as I always hear from Facebook.

[jlgbecom]

Yeah, I think it's definitely different in the U.S. than Germany, regarding Facebook's hegemony. Hardly anybody uses anything else here.