Counterpoint:

Didnt humans "pretty much live the same lives" for like hundreds of years before the industrial revolution? As in terms of if you put someone in 1500 CE to 1000 CE or 500 CE and like swap their places, they could 99% fit right in (provided you magically also acomodate for sound shifts in language throught the centuries), I mean in the technological sense, like maybe rulers change and culture is slightly evolved/devolved, but its fundamentally the same thing.

Its really around the 21 century that had a "turning point", where info isnt something passively passed to you, but something you could actively seek out on your own. A little adventure with just a network connected screen device.