You could extend this even further to discussions about media that was traditionally used to escape, like sports, movies, even books. A lot of interactions regarding sports is focused on "advanced analytics" and highlighting obscure data points above all else, e.g., Team X is the fourth team on the West coast since 1970 to score Y points through N games. People rarely talk about how much they enjoy a movie, but everyone is quick to discuss box office numbers and Rotten Tomatoes scores. Books too now have an entire subculture associated with their economic framing ("buy books from local bookstores!") rather than actual discussions of the material.

I miss the pointless internet.

Me too. Nowadays if you die on the internet, you die in real life!