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They want their kids to have a social life — just not a smartphone. So they're buying landlines.
Yahoo ^ | 10/16/25 | Rachel Grumman Bender

Posted on 10/17/2025 2:04:36 PM PDT by DallasBiff

Anyone who grew up before Y2K remembers what it was like to make a phone call on a landline: You’d punch in your friend’s phone number (which you had memorized), make awkward small talk with their mom or dad until your friend got on the line, and then see how far you could stretch that curly cord to get some actual privacy while you chatted.

While landlines never really went away, it’s been many years since their heyday. Most Americans — 76% of adults and 86.8% of children — live in wireless-only households, according to a 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that number has been increasing for the past 20 years.

But the landline may be making a comeback. Parents, concerned about their kids’ mental health and online safety, are seeking out ways to keep them off screens (an almost Herculean task these days).

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: landline; landlines; orlandmines; smartphones
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Good for the parents, if they want to go really retro, they should get a rotary phone, if they make them anymore.
1 posted on 10/17/2025 2:04:36 PM PDT by DallasBiff
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To: DallasBiff

I remember being on a party line for a while.


2 posted on 10/17/2025 2:06:08 PM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: DallasBiff
Good for the parents, if they want to go really retro, they should get a rotary phone, if they make them anymore.

I got an NOS black rotary wall phone to hang in my kitchen, as there was a wall plate already in place (house built in 1977). I paid $25 for it on eBay. I have another rotary phone that I got from my nephew who took it out of a demolition project he was on at the time. He meant to give it to his nephew who was 5 years old at the time, but THAT nephew didn't appreciate getting a "phone" that didn't have a touchscreen.

Both phones have been serviced by an old-school tech and are fully functional, but we don't have service.

3 posted on 10/17/2025 2:10:40 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: DallasBiff

“ Good for the parents, if they want to go really retro, they should get a rotary phone, if they make them anymore.”
***********************************************

Makes me wonder…. can you dial ‘0’ and get an operator now-a-days?


4 posted on 10/17/2025 2:13:49 PM PDT by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA-PRO-MAX)
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To: DallasBiff

Next thing you know, someone will figure out how to send tones over the phone line so they can hook a computer up to it and download pron (slowly).


5 posted on 10/17/2025 2:17:44 PM PDT by bigbob (We are all Charlie Kirk now)
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To: DallasBiff

I miss our landline. The house we bought two years ago doesn’t even have the “outlets” for plugging in a phone. (I did keep a couple of phones.)


6 posted on 10/17/2025 2:27:31 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: bigbob
It might be slow but it could also be a good way to save on Internet utility.


7 posted on 10/17/2025 2:42:52 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
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To: DallasBiff

Will they have the stones to actually stop paying for their children’s phones? That’s kind of all it takes, isn’t it?


8 posted on 10/17/2025 2:45:47 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: DallasBiff

I didn’t know they were still available for any reasonable price. I’ve not had a landline since 1998.


9 posted on 10/17/2025 2:47:09 PM PDT by posterchild
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To: ComputerGuy

“I remember being on a party line for a while.”

I still have our old phone. Not even a rotary dial on it. Just a round plate with the number. And the number was (Town name #XX). Everyone had a different ring, ours was one long two shorts...

And yes we had busybodies who listened in on other’s phone calls... Years later after we got modern phones I still kept that phone on our service business office desk. Just about every customer would ask if they could use our phone and they would tie up our one business line. So I would say “sure” and point to that old phone with no dial. They would stare it it for about five minutes and then come back out and say “never mind”. lol :)


10 posted on 10/17/2025 3:16:44 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: Openurmind

I used to have a pair of wooden crank phones that mount on the wall. What possessed me to part with them is still a mystery.


11 posted on 10/17/2025 3:40:03 PM PDT by GingisK
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To: Lizavetta

I’m going to get my son a pay telephone with rotary dual that requires him to pay for those phobe calls. I gotta make a buck back on my familial investment somehow!

Now if I can only find an old phone box and put it outside so he has to go out there to make his calls.


12 posted on 10/17/2025 3:45:42 PM PDT by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
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To: GingisK

“I used to have a pair of wooden crank phones that mount on the wall. What possessed me to part with them is still a mystery.”

Yes, we had one of those in the shop when I was a kid. It was the only phone for 50 miles around. And we let the community use it. But back then folks got on, got their business done as succinct as possible, and got off so someone else could use it or so we did not lose business calls. We would even take messages and hand deliver them to folks 50 miles out. I was delivering some of those at 12 years old. There was mutual courtesy and respect for each other in those days. :)

Someone stole that phone or I would still have it too... :)


13 posted on 10/17/2025 4:20:53 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: DallasBiff

I still have a land line.... Going on 40+ years.


14 posted on 10/17/2025 4:30:55 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: maddog55

How many of us got rid of landlines caused they got to be taxed to death? Added almost 50% to the cost. 911, fees galore


15 posted on 10/17/2025 4:47:20 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT back in 2006)
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To: DallasBiff

We had a party line for a while when I was a kid. Very annoying. Now that my wife and I are elderly, we’re reluctant to rely on cell phones for emergency services. I honestly don’t know if true land lines exist here in KY, but we opted for Voice-Over IP when we bought our home. It emulates a land line, so it’s definitely an improvement over cellular. (I despise cell phones for a bunch of reasons, but especially if calling 911.) I’m all for limiting kids’ phone use. Land line or VOIP would work for teaching them that phones are for talking to other people, not being corrupted by ChiCom crap!


16 posted on 10/17/2025 5:03:50 PM PDT by FlatulusMaximus
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To: DallasBiff

We never got rid of our landline.


17 posted on 10/17/2025 5:05:07 PM PDT by MomwithHope (Forever grateful to all our patriots, past, present and future.)
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To: DallasBiff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNEzndgiFI


18 posted on 10/17/2025 5:06:57 PM PDT by MomwithHope (Forever grateful to all our patriots, past, present and future.)
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To: MomwithHope

I have our landline with same number since early 1980’s in the house and one in my office since 1996 for my business and able to fax those who still fax.


19 posted on 10/17/2025 5:11:37 PM PDT by antceecee ( )
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To: posterchild

There are a whole lot of rotary phones on eBay. The touchtone ones should probably work also if you have a live wireline.


20 posted on 10/17/2025 5:49:57 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (To live free is the greatest gift; to die free is the greatest victory. —Erica Kirk)
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