[MichaelZuo]

This is looking at the past with extremely rose tinted glasses, in reality life was very nasty and usually short for anyone below the lower gentry. (>90% of the population)

Especially in tiny peasant villages in pretty much every country, except maybe Switzerland and some Polynesian islands.

[s1artibartfast]

Life being short, difficult, and full of unpleasantness is tangential to the question if human interaction was different in much smaller exposure.

You dont even have to go that far into the past, you can simply talk to anyone who lived prior to the internet.

pick something like skateboarding. The best skateboarder in 100 kids could shock and impress peers with tricks they had never seen.

Pick a given subject, the best expert someone would be exposed to was very limited.