These kids' reaction to seeing landline for the first time is pure joy: 'This phone actually works'

Social media users are feeling old after seeing a video of two kids using a landline phone for the first time. The pair's shocked response to the old piece of technology has viewers in stitches. User @lmhurd1 posted a video of two kids who looked at a landline and wondered if it was really a real phone. The older girl in the video appears shocked when she puts her ear to the landline phone and discovers that it "really works." The two young girls' behavior in the video can be explained by statistics, especially given that most American homes have probably moved even more toward mobile use in the last decade.

The majority of American homes no longer use landlines, according to a 2016 study by the U.S. Health Department, which estimated that almost 50.8% of them don't own landlines anymore. Landlines were once the most common mode of communication. In the 1990s, cell phones were frequently bulky and heavy, had short battery lives and were, most importantly, very expensive. The new millennium, however, saw the evolution of mobile phones into more compact, technologically capable devices that were reasonably priced. The market boomed after cellphones were introduced. Today, 97% of Americans, according to the Pew Research Center, own a cell phone of some type. The 2021 study shows that smartphone ownership in the U.S. has increased to 85% from just 35% a decade ago.

User @Imhurd1 uploaded the video on social media, where it has already received 1.8 million views. When the woman tells the young girls it's a real phone, they look shocked and say, "Really?" The woman responds, "Yeah. It's a real phone!" While waiting for the woman's mobile to ring, she tries it out for herself by dialing the number on the wall-mounted landline. The older child appears shocked when it does. The younger of the two kids is then seen using a landline phone for the first time while the older child dials a number. There is visible shock among the two teenagers as they are able to succeed in calling someone else through the landline.

The older child answers the call on her smartphone and replies, "That's cool," as the younger of the two girls on the landline exclaims, "Oh my gosh!"  She exclaims, visibly shocked that the antiquated piece of equipment still functions, "This phone truly works!" The video, captioned "You're seeing a landline phone for the first time," left many viewers who had grown up with landlines feeling appropriately disconnected from today's youth. Many viewers who were born before the invention of cellphones have felt very out of the loop as a result of the teenagers' response. 

User Princeton Carter expressed feeling old, writing, "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."