With instant global communication, information overload, and algorithmic amplification of attention, are we really experiencing something new?

Yup, we are.

But that's not unique: So did every generation before us, too. There's always something new in every generation. But that something really is new.

Or am I just the latest guy to think my own time has unique problems never seen before?

Yes, you are.

But like all the other old men shaking their fists at the clouds before you, you are also right: That new stuff really is new. All the other Grampa Simpsons yelled about other stuff, that was new to each of them but is old hat, "what the world has always been like", to us.