You know there's a difference. Nowadays, many people are glued to their phones because of addictive apps like TikTok and Instagram. I can't imagine that newspapers had the same effect.
I dunno, there are a lot of tv shows and movies from the pre-internet era that depict parents lost in their newspapers and totally oblivious to what their kids are doing.
I'm mid-forties, so I remember it well, except my recollection isn't really proof that it happened, and my parents weren't neglectful. In fact, all my memories of my parents were that they would stop what they were doing to talk to us. So I remember it being a common complaint, but it wasn't my experience.
They did, but they were definitely more boring than most people. You'd have to be married to someone for a few years before the paper was a reasonable alternative.
I survived the pre-device world and socialized with people. Newspapers were shitty twitter, split into paragraphs on separate pages, without engagement and comments, magazines were expensive versions of the same but with pretty color pictures.
Pre-internet, people had 'areas of interest' so you could maybe learn about something they were passionate about (assuming they weren't wrong). Marriage was the real killer because all you ever got from your spouse what whatever they learned recently (gossip/news)
Now, people are sharing what they read on social media and some learn things all the time.