Sounds like you are still in ARR. I will echo what everyone says to the point that it is a meme. ARR is not representative of the game as it is now. The story picks up in HW (or more specifically 2.55 just before HW) and peaks massively at the current shadowbringers. Naturally the ARR zones will be dead, everyone is in the shadowbringer zones.

I would recommend one of four courses of action:
1. Tough it out, it gets better
2. Quit and come back in 5.3, there are apparently significant reworks to the new player experience coming in that patch
3. Get a story skip potion to get closer to current content
4. Quit, not every game has to be for everyone.