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I’ve thought about this before, and I’m not sure it is weird, I think it largely makes sense.

The early days of the internet was essentially a self-selecting group of individuals, the chances for finding like minded folks were that much higher. Just the excitement at being online at all is no longer an interesting experience to anyone - it was back then to much of this much smaller group. A shared exciting experience attracting likeminded people.

Now the entire planet is almost online, the distinction between a human and someone who uses the internet largely doesn’t exist anymore- it’s no longer a subset and has all the vagaries of real life, with its good, bad and in-between actors. Another example of this is that in the early 90s we didn’t care about identity fraud online nearly as much - today it’s a much bigger problem that many people have experienced.

Given that, is it any surprise people are now perhaps as guarded as they are in the “real world”? Back then the line between the offline world and the online one was much clearer, today it’s more and more a core feature of humanity’s daily existence, good and bad. My thoughts anyway.