Why Families Are Bringing Back Landline Phones

With screens and social media woven into everyday life, parents are looking for ways to reduce their children’s screen time. One old-school solution is making a comeback.

Landline phones are now returning to households. “Watching families shift back to old-school tech shows parents are realizing that too much tech too soon isn’t wise,” Titania Jordan, a childhood digital safety expert with Bark Technologies, told Parents. “This landline trend is just one sign of a larger move toward slower, lower-tech childhoods,” she added.

It Started as a Joke
Sharon Paculor told CBS that a group of parents in her neighborhood in Queens, New York City, first discussed bringing back landlines as “kind of a joke.” They soon saw landlines as a fun way for their children to keep in touch with friends. 

“We hear a lot about how social media or just the addiction to screens has had an adverse effect,” Paculor said. “There are some good things still from the past that we can still use today.”

After installing the landline, she had to teach her son how to dial a number the old-fashioned way. Since then, her son has benefited from learning phone etiquette and intentional listening.

Thrill of the Unknown Caller
In San Diego, the Lundberg family has also installed a landline with happy results, CNN reports.

There’s “an actual thrill that runs through our household when the phone rings,” Alison Lundberg, a San Diego-based communications executive, told CNN. Part of the excitement comes from the fact that no one knows who is calling because the family does not have caller ID.

Lundberg decided to install the landline after her 4-year-old daughter Ava’s preschool camp taught a lesson about calling 911 in an emergency. 

Lundberg then realized that everyone in her family only had cellphones. “All of a sudden, I had this realization,” she said. “How would my 4-year-old actually do that?” Now, when Lundberg travels for work, she worries less about what Ava would do if something happened to Ava’s father. 

Chats With Grandparents
Ava now mostly uses the landline to speak with her out-of-state grandparents. 

Looking ahead to when Ava is older, Lundberg has persuaded other moms to join what she calls her landline “revolution,” so her daughter will have friends she can call. 

“If we can get more friends talking on the phone, then hopefully we can delay” the introduction of social media, Lundberg said.

Landlines come from an earlier era, but the benefits they offer are timeless. For families, a phone without social media and applications gives children a simple way to talk, listen, and strengthen their relationships with loved ones.