> Elder generation thought face to face conversation is usually s̶i̶n̶c̶i̶e̶r̶e̶sincere.

What? I'm not sure where you grew up, but I'm not aware of a culture which ever thought this was true. Maybe there is miscommunication? It's just easier for older generations to parse. Mostly this is due to the fact that in person communication is a lot more information dense since tone and body language are conveyed. These are things that are so important we _TRY_ to express through text via other means , but it'll never suffice ;) Plus... you know... they are less use to text and the rapidly evolving cultural norms. They don't know why you think they're yelling, they just think BIGGER WORDS EASIER TO READ (interestingly variants of this appear across cultures). But there is not a single culture that does not also adapt it's writing to modern text based communications.

Objectively, face-to-face communication IS more sincere, in the fact that there's more communication. But you're also not wrong because people are frequently more honest over text. Since they abstract the person they're communicating to and this reduces their fear. We all wear different masks in different settings. You're not the same person you are to your close friends as you are to your family as you are to your strangers. None of this is "fake" but you are many. But we probably have more faces now than most people had in the past.

If anything, it is the current generations (mine included, and I say this as an introverted millennial) lack of connection that makes text so much more impactful. Often not knowing what to do with the extra information and with the boundaries of sincerity being much fuzzier over text. I mean people can make a modest proposal, preference that way, and people will still not understand the sarcasm. People that are terminally online!

> The perception of adults that the world goes to hell all the time is as old as time itself.

Yes and no. It is more prevalent in today's world because today's world is more rapidly changing. If you were born in the 1700's you would not expect your life to be much different than your parents'. But in the last 100 years a ton has changed, and made DRASTIC changes to our worlds. We not only invented the capacity to fly, but advanced it to global air travel, and where it is now mundane. While telephones were invented nearly 200 years ago they didn't get widespread adoption till the 1930's. Then in it took till the 80s & 90s for cellphones to become a thing, and now we have smart phones. Computers weren't really a thing till the 50's and even in my parents' age they didn't start really using them till maybe the 80's and at work. Home computer wasn't common for at least another decade. Hell, even when I was a kid you found your friends by riding your bike to their house and knocking on their door. If that didn't work, you ride to your other friends' and look to see if their bike is outside. That getting an unannounced visitor at the door was commonplace.

The world isn't _just changing_, it is RAPIDLY changing and it shouldn't be surprising that people are struggling to make sense of it all. But that also doesn't mean you should over simplify things and paint everything with broad strokes. Abstraction is good and helpful, but details also matter. You need to consider both.