Not sure it's that different. There used to be trash magazines about celebrities and mysterious UFOs and romance stories etc. And even today most people don't r

Not sure it's that different. There used to be trash magazines about celebrities and mysterious UFOs and romance stories etc. And even today most people don't read articles, they read chat messages and tweets and short fb posts etc. The cliche thing everyone jokes about is how nobody reads the damn article (reddit, HN etc). News portal reading is kinda similar to newspaper reading. Teens don't read "boring" political articles today nor in the 80s. They read their niche stuff, but they did have hobby magazines on electronics, fantasy or fashion or music even back then. It could be that you yourself and your peers read more simply as a function of getting older and more mature.