Gaming is a much more mainstream hobby than it used to be, but it has its roots in gaming in general (i.e. not just video games). It's never been as antisocial as people have thought. MMORPG's have roots in games like Dungeons and Dragons which when not also online is part of face to face gaming. So by making it an MMORPG instead of a pen and paper rpg, it didn't really become more social over the years but just became over voice chat or text chat instead of face to face etc. It's not just that genre either. Basic gameplay ideas and mechanics do sometimes link back to non-video gaming. Video gaming can be a very social thing but when saying gaming has become more social it's not really obvious because some games have links to physical games like rpg's and board games so they are probably about the same socially as they were face to face (I don't see much difference in how I talk to the same friends on discord vs playing board games with them so I'd say it is about the same) and haven't really become more social and yes, mroe games in their basic makeup lean towards socialising and multiplayer nowadays but there have been multiplayer games since relatively early in video gaming and there was always the "take it in turns playing until you die or finish a whole level by yourself" thing too where kids played single player video games and just took it in turns. I remember doing that with the PS1 with friends when I was a kid. I guess the way gaming is going, the games themselves facilitate socialising more than in the earlier times, and tools like discord are great for this, and the existence of streaming and gaming content leads to communities over people's gaming etc which is social, but overall apart from the streaming / gaming videos side of things (which makes a big difference as it is a completely different way of socialising with games) I wouldn't say the actual act of gaming is any more or less social than it was based on my memories of playing as a kid and playing as an adult. The basic way games are constructed is more social nowadays in general - not all ofc but there is a trend that way - and the existence of gaming content opens up more doors for social interactions around games that didn't previously exist, but the actual act of gaming seems about the same to me.
As for how people view it, gaming is much more mainstream now, but there still are people that have problems with it. I live in Australia and I think we're worse than America in terms of being scared of video games but while it is a mainstream there's still people who have no understanding of it and think dumb things about it in regards to violence, it being dumb (even though video games improve a lot of skills) and stuff like that. Gaming is understood a lot more and has become a lot more mainstream to where yes, the average person won't be like, look at that video game playing geek, but it's not understood enough by some unfortunately (and they are often the vocal ones thinking there is something wrong with it).