this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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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.

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[–] octobob@lemmy.ml 36 points 9 months ago (5 children)

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 30 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] remington 8 points 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!!!!!

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[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 9 months ago

it's from the nypost - a tabloid rag from rupert murdoch - what did you expect?

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 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.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 9 months ago

It's not clear these people wouldn't have a cellphone as well.

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I still want to talk on the phone and I probably wouldn’t if it was like corded landline days when you were constrained to wherever the cord would reach. Cordless was freeing, and I’ll never go back!

[–] YuzuDrink 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I look back fondly on the moments of “where is the phone?!” Because someone took it to their room to have a private conversation but then left it there on accident.

Still happens I guess, but where everyone has their own phone (not one shared for the whole family) it’s less frantic and thus less hilarious to me.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago

we still play that game. at least once every week or two, i'm calling a 'lost' phone from another or using the handset locator on a cordless system.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

There were cordless landlines for years. So you could go usually anywhere in the house or even into the yard a ways. But I can't think why anyone would want to use something like that when you have cell phones. Large, comfy form factor I suppose.

[–] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago

Same reason I like running retro consoles/hardware. The process itself is part of the fun.

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[–] averyminya 25 points 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.

[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 25 points 9 months ago

I bet there are dozens of people doing this.

[–] nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sometimes I wonder if some companies or groups are paying to publish "news" about genz using this or that, as a way to promote their stuff. It looks to me as a good and cheap tactic, since some younger people would look into the "trend", trying not to miss it, while some older people would look into it trying to stay "cool" and not look out of fashion.

But then I think again, and it looks like too much of a conspiracy theory. Why does my brain do that?

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[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 19 points 9 months ago (4 children)

They are fun to slam down when you want to hang up on someone

[–] GeekFTW@kbin.social 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] detectivemittens 12 points 9 months ago

Yeah, angrily jabbing a phone screen realllllyyyy does not have the same satisfaction whatsoever.

[–] Akuchimoya@startrek.website 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I miss flip phones for similar reasons. I loved flicking them open and snapping them shut.

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[–] dankm@lemmy.ca 4 points 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.

[–] Thorry84@feddit.nl 4 points 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.

[–] Che_Donkey@lemmy.ml 16 points 9 months ago (6 children)

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 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 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 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

I love rotary phones lol. They're so fun to play around with.

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[–] ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Not as strange or pointless as it might seem at first glance, I'm reminded of this article from years ago comparing the experience of a modern phone with the old handsets: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/why-people-hate-making-phone-calls/401114/

What does Gen Z suffer from even more than the rest of us? Loneliness, isolation. So using a phone that is designed with physical comfort foremost is a way of reclaiming a sense of social connection and physical touch ("reach out and touch someone"), even when distances between callers are great. And touching the cord, again, a way of feeling the connection with the other person, which in a world of wireless devices isn't possible -- there's nothing there but empty space. It's not just about twirling the cord.

This isn't to suggest there are no benefits to smartphones, and others here suggest earbuds to improve call quality and ergonomics. But the fact is modern smartphones are designed to do many things OK-ish in compromise, but nothing so well as the other devices they replace (phones, TVs, calculators - remember those?, flashlights, keyboards, etc etc.)

[–] SilverShark 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Awesome grounded explanation!

And phones don't indeed replace many other devices. Like camaras too, for example. If you want to do really good photography, you actually need different kinds of lenses. Although lenses exist for smartphones, they are not that widespread, and using a camara is therefore still important.

Also a big point is the ergonomics of it. Handling a camara is much easier for long and complex photography sessions. Same with having a calculator at hand. It's easier to punch numbers in a physical keyboard. Or to handle a flashlight, or using a real keyboard to write a document. The list goes on and on and on.

[–] ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh yes, my phone is nearly impossible to use as a camera, between the inherently awkward shape, the case, and the long processing delay. Does it work? Yes. But it's not much fun. I love the ergonomic grip(s) of my DSLR and how every button and dial is in a natural position.

That's another thing we miss, plain old tactile feedback of buttons, dials, sliders, switches.

[–] SilverShark 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

About buttons, it's also good they're going back on car interior design. Driving without physical buttons is just dangerous.

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[–] Ilandar@aussie.zone 14 points 9 months ago (7 children)

I don't get why millennials and older generations mock zoomers for these trends. What's wrong with enjoying old technology and childhood nostalgia? People are so needlessly petty when it comes to younger generations and their interests.

[–] peter@feddit.uk 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Considering that every single generation has nostalgia its baffling to me this is even news

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[–] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Elder Millennial here, I hate the whole mocking of generations and hoped ours wouldn't do it as much, but I'm still seeing people of my generation doing so. We did stuff others might call dumb too, or just stuff for the hell of it.

[–] Ilandar@aussie.zone 4 points 9 months ago

Yeah it's particularly weird from millennials because it wasn't that long ago our "avocado toast" generation was absolutely copping it from boomers.

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[–] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (13 children)

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.

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[–] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 6 points 9 months ago (6 children)

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.

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] neocamel@lemmy.studio 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Man there's something about talking on a cell phone that makes me feel like I have to yell, and thus, hate talking on them.

As I remember land lines, they never felt that way.

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[–] GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago (4 children)

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

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