As a relative newcomer to the privacy community, I don’t remember constantly hearing about things being overreacting. What I do remember hearing is to think about your threat model and behaving accordingly, to not over-sacrifice convenience for things that aren’t a priority to you.
Well, if you’re for real, you pretty much answered your own question there. Many guys online are creeps, and you’d prefer to talk with women rather than try to find the golden fun normal person in a haystack of men.