Just starting to skim, the New York Times article length one I can guess at: 2012 was when "Snowfall"[1] came out causing a sensation and whole shift in long format interactive articles probably going forward. And an increased battle against Facebook's video push caused by the full mainstreaming of mobile phones.
It’s more than that though. It’s phones, social media, and an unsustainable system of unaffordability where people have to live on credit and have a combination of no time and desire for social interactions.
Economic human factory farm you cannot escape with social media and short form video as the dopamine hit, so line keeps going up.
I'm actually the creator of this. I, too, think it's more than phones and social media, but that it was the great accelerator.
Great work, I love it. Consider a bar shade across time for the pandemic like you would a recession.