When Mariah Houghton moved into her New York brownstone, she did something that felt quietly radical in the digital age — she installed a landline. Not for nostalgia’s sake, not as décor, but as a boundary. Only her closest friends and family — her “favorite people,” as she calls them — have the number. The phone sits on a wooden table in her living room, cream-colored and corded, humming with the faint possibility of connection. “When it rings, I know it’s someone I love,” Houghton said. “That’s really the whole point.”
The Landline Is Mariah’s Break From Social Media
Houghton works in social media management, spending much of her day online. She says that when she moved to New York, she wanted a space — even a small one — where the internet couldn’t reach her. “I’m constantly on my phone,” she said. “I’d be on the phone with my mom but also checking email, scrolling Pinterest, doing five things at once. The landline forces me to stop. It’s not even wireless. I have to sit down. I have to make time.”
1996 Is Calling
Houghton, who was born in 1996, remembers the old home phones from her grandparents’ house — the way she and her cousins would call dibs on who got to answer it. “I think we all remember that sound,” she said. “It meant something. It meant someone wanted to talk to you.” That memory, she says, is part of why she calls her landline her “inner child project… Sometimes convenience kills connection,” she said. “We’ve made everything easier, but we’ve also made it less meaningful.”
She Tries To Stay Offline As Much As Possible
Charlene Hopey sits on her bedroom bed as she holds her princess phone. Her princess phone typically stays on her bedroom nightstand next to her bed. Charlene Hopey has been fighting with the city as they attempt to turn of the landline services to her street in favor of cell phone services.
Houghton’s apartment reflects that same philosophy: paper planners, photo albums, and a growing DVD collection. “It’s grounding,” she said. “There’s something about holding a memory in your hand instead of scrolling through it.” When the TikTok went viral, Houghton didn’t expect it. “I walked away from my phone for a few hours,” she said, laughing. “Then I came back and it was blowing up. People really felt it.”
Longing Not For The Past, But Presence
Mandatory Credit: Yannick Peterhans-USA TODAY NETWORK
“Maybe your version isn’t a landline,” Houghton said. “Maybe it’s writing letters, or going on walks without your phone. Whatever it is, it’s about creating space for connection again.” She plans to keep her landline “forever,” she said. “I want my kids to grow up with one. I want them to know what it’s like when the phone rings, and you drop everything — because someone you love is calling.”
