I think social media has increased virtue-signalling as a substitute for real virtue. It's easier to make some tweets or change your profile picture than to actually work toward progress, and as you noted, the dopamine drip of reactions leaves a feeling of accomplishment, no matter how counterfeit it may be in reality. Narcissism and opinion have definitely substituted for reason in most online discourse.

The mainstream news has either gotten far worse about journalistic integrity over the same time period, or else I just learned enough about propaganda to notice it more. The old reporting standards I learned in school of who, what, where, when, why, and how have been replaced with blatant partisan and nationalistic propaganda on all the corporate outlets. "Equal time" only means two people from different parties shouting nonsense opinions at one another for a segment. I wonder which came first?