Isn't it a common trope that people feel anonymous and disconnected from others in large cities? If anything, we live in a world where public space is being dominated by private lives being thrusted out there. People complain about Facebook, or Google, or what have you, but these are nothing but public areas where people are willingly thrusting their private lives out there. People having cell phone conversations on a bus is another example.

Imagine being a peasant hundreds of years ago. You live in a village of a a few hundred -- do you honestly think that a peasant living in that situation could go anywhere without someone knowing who they are and noticing what they do? How often do you hear about friends living in big suburban areas, or even in apartments in the downtown area, but have no clue who their neighbors are? How recent of a development do you think that is? Because I'm fairly certain it wasn't happening thousands of years ago, or hundreds.

Obviously this is mostly just my opinion and I don't accept it as an objective truth, but I feel that we live in a very private time, but with a lot of focus on privacy, giving us an illusion that we don't' live in a private time at all. Kind of like the same deal with us living in the most peaceful time of human existence, but it sure doesn't seem like it.