Landline phones are back? I’m waiting for the apocalypse before I plug mine in again | Tim Dowling

Old-fashioned handsets are the latest big thing in the US. Does no one remember the constant ringing, ropey sound and nuisance calls?

The New York Times reports on a nostalgic surge for landline phones in the US. In parallel with the resurgent affection for VHS tapes and record players, young people are apparently drawn to old-fashioned corded, non-digital instruments as an antidote to screen fatigue and bottomless distraction. They like the idea of a tool that only does one thing: makes phone calls.

To the British this may sound like missing something that never quite went away. Although landlines are in sharp decline in the UK, four in five households still have one, even if a quarter of us don’t have a phone plugged into it. Mine was installed only five years ago, as an inescapable element of a new broadband/TV package. I have never used it; I’m not even sure what my phone number is.

Tim Dowling is a Guardian columnist

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ZIEYVUW