Those things you talk about missing are symptoms of a centrally controlled culture. Everyone isn't going to be doing the same thing unless they're propagandized to do so.

But you don't need fads and crazes for culture to be interesting. You just need interesting people who can talk about interesting things. But nowadays people don't read and don't know much about anything that isn't related to their job, weird fetishes or obscure things only an autist would be interested in. Part of this is because technology has caused skill decay and reduce attention spans, but also a general apathy and pessimism about life and financial difficulties give people less motivation and time for such interests. Real life conversations in particular are less interesting because of reduced social interaction and cancel culture.