>>17983307
This used to be the case you mean, but with the rise of social media, people actually aren't as exposed to fiction as they used to be, instead they're more exposed to misleading, misinformed facsimiles of reality and constant fearmongering and Mean World Syndrome.
I'll even take this a step further and say that society was actually better off when news was gatekept to people that had the media literacy necessary to properly parse it and understand context while everyone else exposed themselves to fiction instead, because I think some level of escapism is necessary in an inherently complex society that would otherwise be difficult for the average person to make sense of, and would otherwise be better off exposed to media that is optimistic about the future and/or allows you to escape into a more optimistic fantasy. Nowadays everyone is an armchair expert because they watched a 40 second short-form video clip that intentionally leaves out context regarding its subject matter.