I am not too young to remember the ringing of a good ol’ telephone in our house. It was a staple of communications for many years. We even had an “outside” ringer.
Things changed a bit in the early 90’s when my dad’s ’85 LeBaron showed up one day with a “car phone” installed. I remember talking to my mom on it while I was out on assignment with dad, either chasing storms or taking family pictures somewhere. Times changed again in the mid to late 90’s when we realized no one was home very much, so why have a landline? Since then, I have not had a landline in any of my residences and my kids will grow up not having one either (I’m not too sad about it).
HOLD ON: it does take a few years, but the business world is changing. Business will be dropping their landlines, it just make sense. Everyone is busy, out with clients, working remotely. With mobile phones now becoming “devices” that have integrated web cams (Apple’s Facetime on iPhone and iPad, which will also run Skype and other video conferencing software) you could almost run your business from the 9th hole of your favorite course.
One of these days, kids 5-6-7 years old will be bound to a mobile phone. It’s just much easier that way. Why try to find a “landline” when you can just pull the phone out of your pocket? They have phones these days that will only call out to 5 locked-in numbers, or only accept calls from 5 incoming numbers…no fancy touchscreen, just a simple phone with “mom” “dad” and a few other buttons to call the ones you need most.
It won’t be long now and everyone will be using their phones or pads or tablets or Kindles or Nooks to do everything they are doing now with their laptop or desktop computers. Some people already are.