The most unbelievable things about life before smartphones (2020)

Agree. I watch a bit of BBC Archive every now and then, and what strikes me most is how people are essentially the same on almost the exact topics we discuss today. Here's a video that films a pub conversation in 1983:

https://youtu.be/6yfE9Ihr8F0&t=686

Same fears, same talking points, same loud personalities stealing the discussion with conspiracy rhetoric and the rational ones in the room quietly disagreeing.

And why is the public so politicized? Why because they read all the same papers from their trusted sources, same as we do now.

I don't think the technology has fundamentally changed us, and I'm near certain that you could go back 2000 years and experience the same level of discourse.