How Internet and Mobile Phones Usurped the Land Line

The Telephone and New Technology

The home telephone used to be a staple of every house with a landline. Everyone in the home shared it, and if one needed to make a call while another was on the phone, one had to wait his turn. Today, the landline is in danger of extinction as the home telephone has been replaced by the advent of new technology: cell phones, instant messaging, emails, and Skype, FaceTime or Zoom calls have all ended the need for a single landline in the home. There is no longer any need for one to call up a house and ask for one of its occupants; one can call that person directly, text that person, send an email to that person, or chat with that person online (Livingston, 2020). The home telephone had some utility prior to the Age of the Internet and the age of the mobile device. Today, the home telephone is something of an anachronism (McDermott, 2014). It represents a prior era of communication technology. It may soon be the case that to see a home phone in a house is as surprising as seeing a telephone booth on a street corner.

Recent technology has enabled people to transfer away from the home telephone, which essentially tethered a person to a place and time. Even the cordless home telephone still had to be used within a certain radius of the base. If one wanted to receive a call, one had to be home at a certain time. If one wanted to make a call, one had to use the home telephone—or find a phone booth.