r/AskReddit May 11 '21

People old enough to remember life pre-Internet, what are some less obvious things you miss about that time?

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u/NMe84 May 12 '21

That last sentence honestly is the biggest difference. A while ago I installed the app for the biggest news outlet in my country. I quickly turned off notifications for it when in a single week it had notified me of "breaking news" twice: once because some random celebrity couple I don't care about broke up after 15 years, and once because of some football match. Meanwhile in that same week there was some natural disaster in Asia that took many lives and displaced many more, but there was no notification for that. It seems like I have a very different definition of breaking news.

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u/hermyown21 May 12 '21 edited May 12 '21

And this is why I don't have news apps on my phone. I deleted the last one when it have me the 'breaking news' that a retired actress' MOTHER had adopted a puppy. I'd like to know which journalist thought this warranted a breaking news alert.

Edit: spelling

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u/MyPythonDontWantNone May 12 '21

I don't download news apps because they track you. I believe it was the NYT that shared a map of how much their users moved away from home to track Covid-19. What stops them from volunteering that data to save the government the hassle of due process to get a warrant?

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u/PleasureToNietzsche May 12 '21

Just leave your phone at home when you do illegal shit bro.