re: Do you think social media has changed people (especially the youth)?

There are very few generational differences at birth. Every generational difference is cultivated by the generations preceding them.

Since the advent of TV, each generation is shaped by pop culture influences, based on the notions of an older generation of producers.

Today's attention whoring started many decades ago. Today's curmudgeons that bitch about it conveneniently forget how their generation contributed to it.