Landline use rises as families fight smartphone addiction

Teenagers are generally obsessed with their smartphones. So much so that Kristin Hatling's family recently encountered a gaggle of them who had brought their screens into a resort's hot tub.

- Rachel Hutton, Tribune News Service

Wren Hatling

"My daughter Wren Hatling, who's II, was like, 'Mom, all they're doing is looking at their phones and, like, making kissy faces into them. They're not even talking to each other."

While a majority of American 11-and-12-year-olds have their own smartphones, the Minneapolis mother of three is among a growing cohort of parents looking back to their own childhoods for a lower-tech alternative. They're ringing up the landline most households have now abandoned, whose old-school handsets are so rare parents have to coach kids how to use them. These modern "landlines," which are actually WiFi-enabled home phones, have proved popular. One kid-friendly version, the Tin Can, is on a several-month backorder.

Millennial and Gen X parents who spent their teenage years stretching spiral phone cords into their bedrooms and talking until their receiver-ears burned, are reviving the home phone to improve their kids’ communication skills without the risks a pocketful of internet can bring. Hatling and other Minnesota parents say the landline has introduced their kids to the lost art of conversation, given them more independence and helped them take responsibility for their relationships. But first, Gen Alpha had to learn Landline IOI: How to put your mouth near the receiver.