Kids' Stunned Reaction to Using Landline Phone for First Time Goes Viral

A video showcasing two kids using a landline telephone for the first time has gone viral on TikTok, with viewers in stitches over the pair's stunned reaction to the antiquated piece of technology.

It's a response that has left many viewers who grew up in a time before the emergence of smartphones feeling rather old and out of touch.

The video was posted to social media by lmhurd1, where it has already been viewed 1.8 million times. Watch it here.

Back in the 1990s, mobile phones were often large and cumbersome, had poor battery life and, more importantly, were expensive.

However, the dawn of the millennium saw mobiles evolve into smaller, more advanced handsets available at relatively inexpensive prices.

The arrival of smartphones saw the market take off. Today, the Pew Research Center estimates that 97 percent of Americans own a cell phone of some kind.

According to the 2021 study, smartphone ownership in the U.S. has also risen to 85 percent, from just 35 percent a decade earlier.

Landline phones, which were previously the most dominant form of telecommunication, have become increasingly obsolete, with a 2016 report by the U.S. Health Department estimating 50.8 percent of American households no longer use one at all.

A further 39.4 percent of households used both mobile and landline phones, while just 6.5 percent of homes relied solely on landline phones.

Those figures might go some way to explaining the reaction of the two young girls in the video, especially as households are likely to have shifted further toward mobile use in the six years since that government study was conducted.

In the clip, the older of the two girls appears stunned that the landline phone is "actually working" when she puts her ear to it.

"It's a phone," the woman recording the video explains. The older child is equally surprised when the woman explains that if she calls her cell on the landline phone it will ring.

"Really?" she asks in disbelief. "Yeah," the woman replies. "It's a real phone!"

She nevertheless tests it out for herself, dialing the number on the wall-mounted landline then waiting for the woman's mobile to ring. When it does, the older child appears stunned.

The video then cuts to the younger of the two children trying out a landline phone for themselves with the older sibling putting in the number.

There is audible shock among the two youngsters when they succeed in calling another smartphone on the landline.

Seeing a Landline Phone for the First Time

"That's cool!" the older child says with the younger of the two girls on the landline shouting "Oh my gosh!" when her sister answers her call on her smartphone.

"This phone actually works!" she says, evidently stunned that the outdated piece of technology still serves a purpose.

Captioning the clip: "You're seeing a landline phone for the first time," the video left many viewers who grew up using landlines feeling understandably out of touch with young people today.

Princeton Carter said: "I KNOW IM NOT the only one watching this and realizing we old for real now" with inspiredbybria writing: "Oh dang I am ELDERLY."

Portia.noir added: "Oh this hurt my feelings bad" while Sam Cahn commented: "As a dinosaur, this makes me happy but also very sad."

Ken Russell declared: "This is THE age epiphany TikTok. I'm old. I wasn't five min ago. I am now. Thx" with GeoScienceGirl adding: "I'm in my early 30's and have never felt so old."

Namecannotbeblan2 was more philosophical, writing: "This is cool to see their excitement. It's crazy how the younger generation will never experience some of the things we grew up with."

Newsweek has contacted lmhurd1 for comment.