The ’90s called, they want their phones back.

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.

  • Trafficone@slrpnk.net
    2·
    9 months ago

    One thing people forget is long distance fees. Cell phones basically did away with long distance fees, and we’re better for that. However, landlines have some notable benefits:

    • self-powered, you could call in a power outage
    • high fidelity, yeah it was bandpass filtered, but everything in that filter made it through
    • freedom of usage, it was hard-fought but you could plug anything into your phone line, from more phones to answering machines to computer modems. There was a whole market around “dumb shit you plugged into your phone line” products

    We’re still way better overall with cell phones, but something was lost to get them.