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People Are So Sick of Technology They’re Paying to Go Back to Carrier Pigeons

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25.08.2026

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People Are So Sick of Technology They’re Paying to Go Back to Carrier Pigeons

Modern tech is being used to add a bit more friction to a world that became way too slick.

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Technology has gotten so good, spoiled us so thoroughly, that we now need to use that technology to make our lives a little bit more challenging so we can remember what life was like before instant gratification could be measured on a quantum level. Thus, the rise of messaging apps that don’t take fractions of a second to reach someone’s phone on the other side of the Earth. Apps like Carrier Pidge, an app that lets you send a message at the speed of a carrier pigeon, purposely take quite a bit longer.

As the New York Times reports, Carrier Pidge and another app called Roost have attracted hundreds of thousands of users by turning texting digitally back into sending old-school letters. Or, at least, in effect. It’s still a digital text message, but the rate at which it takes to get to the........

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