Our temperaments have definitely changed, quantifiably, and this is one of the manifestations. People are less social. More loners. Tons of factors that have caused this -- interstate highway system, higher education serving as a siphon to suck talent out of towns and into metros, a massive incoming peasant migration from places with very, very alien cultures, and government policies actively destroying and subsuming the role of family and church. All of which adds up to the reality that: Today, you probably do not relate to and share lots in common with your immediate neighbors. You feel no particular affinity towards them. You are a stranger on your own street. You don't have a shared life experience. You don't wake up at the same time in the morning and walk to the same job. You don't have barbecues together. Your kids don't walk to and from school together. You don't see each other at church every week.
You have a closer emotional connection with Conan O-Brien and the characters in the Game of Thrones than you do with anyone whose house you can see out your window. Far closer.
This is a bizarre situation, precedented by previous civilization collapses, but probably never to this extent. People don't like going out. Even to go shopping. When they
are out they're on their geejaw. People are recluses. Non-social and anti-social. It's introversion rigorized and systematized.
