Anecdotally it would seem that people are more online in general, albeit episodically with smartphones rather than via desktops and for hours (apart from work). But engaged only passively on scrolling social media. I would agree that intelligent commentary is much less online than it once was. It seems that intelligent people have mostly seceded from society to do their own thing in peace, to whatever extent is possible, over the past 2 decades.

A lot of young men are NEETs these days, and in many cases not by choice - large numbers of college grads are underemployed or unemployed in America today. Honestly I feel badly for them, but I also don’t know what to do about that. Living through an age of decline sucks.

This seems to be a clear case of “unreasonable search and seizure”, aka a Constitutional rights violation, however the USA is increasingly lawless so who knows whether he gets off.