It’s really not new. People have been hyping up things for centuries. Old newspapers are full of breathless coverage of the snake oil du jour or the next big thing that turns out to be nothing. Scientists have been at it for a really long time as well.

Maybe you pay more attention to it (or are more sensitive to it) now because you’re not as much of an idealist as when you were younger? More experience and having been fooled a couple of times tend to do that.

I any case, a healthy dose of skepticism is good. You just need to be prepared to change your mind when it turns out that something was actually important after all.