Try using “precisely” or “roughly” where applicable. It lets people know you’re talking about firm realities and aren’t using hyperbole.

It’s a stupid, imperfect workaround and I hate that it’s necessary, but it’s the best we have for a decade or three until people stop bastardizing “literally”.

Allow me to rephrase on their behalf:

Saying “I have it worse” makes no one feel better.

We’re communicating instantaneously over a globe spanning computer network. In the early 90s that was not possible for the average joe. It was only in the very tail end of the decade that doing so didn’t require a fair amount of money and/or technical knowledge.

The network provides all of the information in every library on the planet to us instantaneously.