cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/10105454

• Gen Z’s nostalgia for the early 2000s is sparking a revival of landline phones, seen as a retro-chic escape from the digital age.

• Influenced by '90s and 2000s TV shows, young adults like Nicole Randone and Sam Casper embrace landlines for their vintage appeal.

• Urban Outfitters capitalizes on Gen Z’s love for nostalgia by selling retro items like landline phones alongside fashion trends from the '90s and 2000s.

  • octobob@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    This seems like a dumb tiktok trend or some shit. It’s hard to get by in this world without a cellphone

    But I just wish anyone would still want to talk on the phone. I love chatting with friends for an hour or so on the phone but everyone hates it now. Quick random texts just feel so much less personal. Ah well

    • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      This seems like a dumb tiktok trend or some shit.

      a lot of these articles are trash for this reason. most of it shouldn’t be posted tbh

      • admiralteal@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        There’s just zero merit to these “people on the internet are saying X” stories.

        Nothing of value to sourcing a few retweets, ticktock duets, instagram stories, or whatever the fuck TMTMTM version of it you get.

        Actual street interviews with random schlubs are far, far more informative than this crap. The internet is huge and you can find literally any opinions on it. Sourcing these anecdotes is absolutely the trashiest tier of journalism and anyone writing one of these stories should think hard about an immediate career change.

        Run a fucking poll if you want to write a story about public opinion.

        The world will be a better place the day after every serious news media organization leaves twitter and tells all their journalists they cannot use it as anything other than an original source to what a specific public figure has to say.

        • Chris Remington@beehaw.org
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          9 months ago

          The world will be a better place the day after every serious news media organization leaves twitter and tells all their journalists they cannot use it as anything other than an original source to what a specific public figure has to say.

          YES!!!

    • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      It doesn’t say anything about getting rid of their cell phone for one. The article says quite the opposite actually.

      While Gen Zers definitely don’t need a landline — still relying on their cellphones for virtually everything — it’s the aesthetic of “2000s nostalgia” that makes the relic so attractive to them.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      9 months ago

      I swear, these article-writers just hear about a few quirky teenagers and immediately label it a viral trend that will sweep the entire world…

  • averyminya@beehaw.org
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    9 months ago

    Think about it - corded phones died because we needed to walk around and talk. I mean, you all remember how ridiculously long some of those cords could get so that people could do light chores. Then wireless landlines became a thing (and I swear the audio quality seemed to drop) and as cellphones became more predominant they were almost phased out entirely - certainly phased out of necessity.

    But now two decades or so later we’re just in one spot all the time again. If we’re not at work we’re at home and if we’re not cooking or cleaning we’re probably just in one spot (likely at the computer or the TV). So it makes sense to me, although I do wonder how much of this is more of a micro trend than Gen Z bringing back landlines lol.

    • GeekFTW@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      40 years old. Haven’t been satisfied with a phone-slam since before my first cordless phone in 2001.

    • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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      9 months ago

      I had one of those see through phones back in the day. Loved that thing. But turns out the see through plastic isn’t as strong as the older style. Smashed it down too hard one day and the whole thing was destroyed.

    • dankm@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      The only right way to slam down the phone requires an old phone with actual bells for the ringer. You know you did it right then the bells ding at you.

  • Che Banana@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    bundled in our internet is a landline…so we found a vintage rotary phone and hooked it up. We can receive but not call out. It’s awesome.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      If you’re interested, these things will convert rotary pulses to tones and allow your old phone to interface with the phone system (and voip systems too)

      Edit: nvm, someone beat me to it

    • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      not a recommendation (I have not used any pulse to tone converters), but this may help you out.

      • Che Banana@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Appreciate all the comments, its just a novelty at the moment but if we ever start to use it it would be for reservations only (and incoming only).

  • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    Article and trend aside, I actually do miss landlines… I have to do the “boomer” thing of talking on speaker phone with my phone out in front of me because no matter what I do putting my flat cellphone up to my ear is just impossible to hear and exceedingly uncomfortable. I miss the ergonomics of a real phone.

    • thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Have you considered Bluetooth (or wired) earbuds? I can’t stand phone calls without them. Speakerphone makes me self-conscious in public and I can’t help but get shouty, and I have the same problem as you do with face-smush mode. But my Bluetooth earbuds are exactly how I want my phone call experience to be.

      • Exocrinous@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Okay but what do I do if I’m not wearing my buds when I receive a surprise call?

          • Exocrinous@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            I keep my buds in their own case in a special pocket of my backpack. If I’m sitting at my desk and get a call, I need to pause what I’m doing, stand up, extricate myself from my work corner, go to my bag, open the special pocket, take out the charging case, take out the buds, and put them in. And I have to do it either in the 10 seconds I have to answer the call, or one handed while having a conversation.

            • thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              Oh, mine live either in my pocket or on my desk in most cases, so it’s usually pretty quick. You can also start the call without them and then switch to them after a minute or two once you’ve performed the necessary extraction procedure.

      • sqgl@beehaw.org
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        9 months ago

        Speakerphone makes me self-conscious in public

        I would feel self conscious if people looked at me thinking I was crazy, talking to myself.

      • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Unfortunately I’ve yet to find a pair of earbuds that doesn’t fall out or hurt my ears (or both), Either my ears are shaped differently than the average or I have to spend more to find the right pair. I would use headphones instead, but they’re hard to lug around and most work days I interact with customers so it’s a no-go.

        • thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Oh, that’s too bad. There are band-style or hook-style versions that could maybe help with that, but yeah most of them are buds.

          One thing I’ll say is that when I used to wear wired buds, they would fall out all the time and I thought I just had weird-shaped ears or something… But when I got into wireless buds, I tried out a bunch of styles and found that without the cord, they stay in way more reliably. Wired ones would fall out when I turn my head or just walk 10 steps, but with wireless ones, I can shake my head or run or anything, and they stay in. I guess the weight/movement of the cord makes a big difference, at least for me.

          • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            I hadn’t thought about the wire affecting it, that could well be! Thanks for the input, I may have to take another look at some buds.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    9 months ago

    Can we possibly have a better source for this “story”. Because that one’s not reliable.

    Although in reality it’s not really a story is it

    • 4dpuzzle@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      ‘GenZ is emotionally attached to things from their childhood’. You can replace GenZ with any other generation and it will still work. The stupid article is about mocking one generation to create outrage among others.

  • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    My wife insists on us having a landline. She doesn’t know she’s running a SIP phone over the internet connected to a SIP trunk that has a local area number. She’s happy. I get to kill our landline.

    • sqgl@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      In Australia both internet telephony and mobile are sometimes laggy and garbled. This never happened with landlines.

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Landlines also still work if cell and internet are out but power isn’t in an emergency, which I’d bet is why she wants the landline lol.

        • M. Orange@beehaw.org
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          9 months ago

          Most available “landlines” nowadays are just VoIP anyway tho. It’s why my dad got into ham radio.

        • sqgl@beehaw.org
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          9 months ago

          Landlines were self-powered. They did not require mains. But if the blackout was because a tree pulled down the power lines then there was a good chance it pulled down telephone wires too.

          • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 months ago

            cell and internet are out but power isn’t

            Though true, phones can also go down, I believe the point would be redundancy in case X works but Y does not. Though as someone else mentioned HAM is a better solution anyway, I need to finally get my technician’s license.

  • Sibbo@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    The optimal phone is both corded and wireless: it has a receiver corded to a base piece with a traditional dial, but the base piece is wireless.

  • GrindingGears@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    I don’t miss landlines. Can’t take the friggin landline with you wherever you go. (Affordable) Cell phones were the game changer.

    • SilverShark@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      I feel like over the last 20 years landlines become this thing you still had from the past in which you only got spam calls. Like, you’re home, and suddenly you hear a strange noise, you realize it’s the landline ringing. You forgot about it. It’s that thing sitting on some shelves with a cord. You pick it up, and you hear something about your car’s extended warrenty.

  • HeartyBeast@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    There was a fashion about 30 years ago in the UK to convert old-style rotary phones so they worked with DTMF touch tones. I had a rather excellent original candle-stick style phone. Got lost in a move somewhere. Retro is always cool

  • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    I’m starting to view fads as a form of annealing. To knock ourselves out of local maxima, humans have an predisposition for finding a reason to go back and try old stuff again. If there was something useful to it, it’ll be reflected in the tools they create. I guess rebellion in general is just as evolutionarily useful as conformity. The Exploration/Exploitation dichotomy.