There's nothing sad about it. I know people that hadn't watched a movie or TV show in 2017. I know people that hadn't played a video game in 2017. It's just a matter of perspective and interest.

I don’t think so - web forums and HN itself has taken over a lot of my attention that was once given to books. I still read a book or so a month, but that’s probably a quarter of what it was ten years ago.

I have read fiction in the years in question, but most of my fiction consumption lately has been serial TV (by internet). Modulo Sturgeon's Law, the quality in the last decade has gone way up.

This could be said about Game of Thrones in the first book. Sadly, it's not 1996 anymore.