I have noticed that when I spend a lot of time reading dystopian fiction, the sense of despair from that dystopia creeps into how I react to real-life. Not all fiction seems to work like that for me, but that style in particular leaves me looking up and going "Whoa," as I readjust to reality. So I do get where the author is coming from here; I think if you spend a significant part of your life in any constructed universe (whether that's Gilligan's Island, Fallout, or Harry Potter), you're inevitably going to start adapting to that universe at least a little bit.
The typical dystopian novel envisaged states of complete surveillance and technology turning against humanity. This is far more possible now with internet and AI than it was in the 50s, and we're already seeing the very same technologies envisaged in those novels being created and turned against humanity right on point (drones, surveillance, loss of privacy, mass media manipulation, etc).
It's not a statement about life being better or worse than the 50s per se; that can be debated. But we're definitely in a far more "dystopian" state of affairs than we were in the 50s.
