Is it really a huge part of our society or is it just one that megacorporations amplify as loud as they can because that's how they want people to behave.

That's a good question actually. I don't know for sure. I tend to think, that for many people things like the Internet are mysteriously working and they have no idea how it works, and as a consequence rarely they go further putting up requirements of how it should work for them. They just accept how things online are, status quo of that which is most visible. Ergo complete victims of the network effects in their social bubbles.