Like record players and VHS tapes, landline phones are being embraced
by nostalgic fans as an antidote to an increasingly digital way of
life.
By Hilary Reid
First came the rhinestone-encrusted rotary. Then the cherry-red
lips. After that, the cheeseburger.
By last summer, Chanell Karr had amassed a collection of six landline
phones. Her most recent, an orange Trimline originally made as a
promotional item for the 1986 film âPretty in Pink,â was purchased
in June. Though she only has one phone - a more subdued VTech model
- hooked up, all are in working order.
"During the pandemic I wanted to disconnect from all of the things
that distract you on a smartphone," said Ms. Karr, 30, who works in
marketing and ticketing at a music venue near her home in Alexandria,
Ky. "I just wanted to get back to the original analog ways of having a landline."
Once a kitchen staple, bedside companion and plot device on sitcoms
such as "¢ex and the Cit"¢ ad nâSeine"",â the landline phone has
all but been replaced by its newer, smarter wireless counterpart.
In 2003, more than 90 percent of respondents to a survey conducted by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they had an
operational landline in their homes. As of June 2021, that number -
which includes Internet-connected phones and those wired the
old-fashioned way (via copper lines running from a home to a local
junction box) - had dropped to just over 30 percent.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/style/landline-phone-fans.html
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