Something unusual and exciting has been happening at Alison Lundberg’s house lately: her landline phone is ringing.
“There’s a real excitement that fills our home when the phone rings,” said Lundberg, a communications executive based in San Diego. Part of the reason is that his family has no idea who is calling since they don’t have caller ID.
It had been decades since Lundberg had a landline. She recently acquired one to protect her 4-year-old daughter Ava, she said. Last summer, Ava’s preschool held a safety class, teaching her how to call 911 in case of an emergency.
At home, Lundberg stressed to her daughter that she should call 911 if anyone was sick, there was a fire or another type of emergency. “I suddenly had this realization,” said Lundberg, whose family only had cell phones. “How would my 4-year-old daughter actually do that?”
So Lundberg installed the landline about five months ago. Now, when she travels for work, she doesn’t have to worry about what her daughter will do if something happens to her husband.
But it’s not the only reason Lundberg is happy with the situation. She is among many parents who say bringing back landlines is benefiting their children, making adults nostalgic and bringing joy to everyone.
Moving away from social media and improving communication
These days, Ava mostly talks on the phone with her grandparents, who live in other states. This allows her to manage her relationship with them without her parents having to schedule the calls.
Lundberg still listens sometimes from the stairs, “because it’s so funny.” Fostering that kind of connection means “there’s some joy” in having a landline, Lundberg said.
It doesn’t work out as well when kids grow up if their peers don’t have landlines, which is why Lundberg convinced some mom friends to join what she calls her “revolution.” Doing so will help your daughter when she’s older, she said.
“She’ll already be talking on the phone and she’ll already be having conversations with her friends, and if we can get more friends talking on the phone, then hopefully we can delay the introduction of social media,” she said.
Children are also learning to have proper telephone conversations. Santa brought Eliza Bianco’s three children, ages 6, 8 and 10, a landline for Christmas. Since she taught them to hold the phone to their ear and talk, they have been having “adorable” conversations with their friends, said Bianco, a public relations executive based in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Her children also learned telephone etiquette, she said. Bianco taught them to say “Hello” or “Bianco Residence” when they answer the phone. When they make calls, they have to say who they are and who they would like to speak to when someone answers.
“It’s not FaceTime,” Bianco said. “The name doesn’t just appear.”
By doing all of these things, they are learning manners and how to speak formally, she said. And your kids love it. “I didn’t force it at all,” she said.
Recently, one of Bianco’s children got into a little mischief at school with the son of Marie McCabe, a pediatric neuropsychologist also based in Saratoga Springs. Afterwards, the two boys talked on their landlines and decided to apologize to the class.
“I don’t think they would have gotten to this without landlines,” McCabe said. It helped that they didn’t have the “distraction of having a screen in front of them,” he says. The landline “simply removes that, and has facilitated…genuine communication and social development.”
Should you have a landline?
Should you consider a landline for your children? It depends, said Dr. Shayl Griffith, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of school psychology at Florida International University.
Start by developing a media plan based on your family’s priorities and circumstances.
“Just going for the landline is missing the whole point,” Griffith said. Instead, think about questions like what your children want to get out of their media use and their vulnerabilities and social situation.
Landlines can be a way to promote more independence in children while protecting them from social media and the internet, she said.
However, using landlines will not give your children the skills they need to be safe and savvy when they go online later. You need a plan to develop this knowledge. You can start with conversations about what they need to know when they eventually go online. Also, monitor them more and have more rules in place initially when they get smartphones, Griffith said.
If you want to use landlines to delay your child’s social media use, you may need to enlist the support of the parents or guardians of your child’s friends. If your child’s friends don’t have them, it will be harder for your child to maintain social connections this way, Griffith said.
What if your child demands a smartphone instead of a landline? Talk about it, he advises. For example, if your children want to join a group that is only on social media, can they use their smartphone and account for that purpose?
For many families, fostering these types of meaningful and productive conversations is the goal of choosing smartphone alternatives in the first place. If you’re not home when your child starts asking to go on social media, you can have this conversation over your landline.
