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.
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.
There are more people available on the phone. We're people. Unless the entire Internet has been replaced with generative AI bots and I'm the last human left... 🤔