How to use a landline to help fix your dating life

Dating in 2025 is hard, and it’s not difficult to find someone who will agree. Whether it’s people opining on TikTok about how it’s better to be single, friends telling horror story after horror story or just you deleting and re-downloading the dating apps every couple of months, finding someone to love feels more impossible than ever. Nothing seems to be working, but we’re here to tell you that a back-to-basics approach may be just what you need to lower your anxiety around dating and find your soulmate. It’s the landline phone.

Why is dating so hard?

Before we get into why phone dating with a landline can help solve your romance problems, we need to break down why dating is so difficult in the first place. The dating apps are the easiest place to start, and truthfully, they’re probably the thing you thought about first! That’s for good reason, as 78 percent of dating app users are feeling burned out by the experience, according to Forbes Health Survey.

The burn out may be a consequence of a growing body of evidence that dating apps can have negative impacts on your body image, mental health and general wellbeing. In a systematic review of studies on dating apps and their impact, Flinders University researchers found 86% of surveys since 2020 reported negative effects of dating apps on body image while almost half found negative effects on mental health and wellbeing.

If you’ve ever used a dating app, you’re probably not surprised at these outcomes. You essentially have to sell yourself, and that can be difficult for a lot of people. For example, you need to post your best photos, but these photos can’t be staged because you risk looking inauthentic, and if you use photos that more align with your personality, you’ll get less matches, which means less opportunities to meet people. And that’s before worrying about posting an entertaining and funny bio that tells people who you are but also why you’re different and that swiping right on you could change their lives (but don’t say that; that’s too much pressure obviously!).

On top of that, apps like Hinge use algorithms to serve up people it thinks will be a good match with you. If you start seeing people you’re not attracted to, and then you yourself don’t get many likes, it’s easy to feel bad about yourself. It turns rejection into a daily cycle, which can harm our self-esteem. On the flip side, you’re always one swipe away from someone who is more attractive or more interesting than someone you may have matched with, which gives you the paradox of choice and fuels your anxiety.

All of this is also before you ever get to actually talk to someone, which has its own problems. First, because dating apps enable you to talk to anyone in the world – not just your city – it may actually be more difficult to find someone compatible with you. Think of it like a puzzle: the less pieces in a puzzle, the easier it is to find which pieces go where. The more pieces you have, the harder it is to fit all those pieces together.

Then there’s social media and texting, which introduces a whole new can of worms that can wind up anxiety through the dating process. Are they watching your stories? Why are they liking but not messaging? Are they liking other people’s photos? You send a risky text, then throw your phone across the room as your anxiety spikes. You wait agonizing minutes… then hours… then—oh my—days for a response. It’s too much all the time and you’re always on and no wonder all of this sucks.

Tips for dating with a landline

But phone dating? It could be the solution to why dating is so hard. So let’s go through how you can use a landline to make your dating life a little easier.

Get off the apps (or at least get off quicker)

Dating apps allow you to chat within them with your matches, but the problem with that is millions of people are a tab away. The paradox of choice, the temptation to swipe, which is an easy and way-too-satisfying thing to do, is right there. Keep it simple, give them your landline phone number and tell them to call you – or that you’ll call them.

Learn more: Replace your old landline

Skip the social media

Sharing your Instagram is often an easy and safe way to share your contact with people without giving your phone number. The problem is that social media itself can be a difficult place to talk to someone romantically. Stories, posts, liking, sharing reels, it’s a lot and it adds in a lot of potential ways to grow your anxiety in a budding relationship. Skip it all and do phone calls instead!

Phone calls are good ways to pre-screen before a physical date

Going on a date takes a lot of time and energy, and there’s nothing worse than going on a date and having a miserable time because you two just don’t click. Sure, maybe you had some good texting banter but that doesn’t always translate. A good way to screen for this is with a nice phone call. See how you conversate, whether there’s some conversational chemistry. Hear the excitement in their voice, or how they laugh at your jokes, or their genuine reactions to that interesting fact about you. Then if you’re both feeling good, you can meet in person and confirm what you already know.

Stay safe with a dating number

Let’s be real, stranger danger is out there in the dating world. You need to protect yourself, and you can do that in a few ways: Sharing your location with friends when going on date, keeping them updated, and being careful with what information you share. One of the ways you can do this is using a second number just for dating. If they want to meet you or talk to you, they must use this dating number until you’ve built enough trust and rapport to get your real number.

Phone date starting questions

Ready to use a dating number? Here are some fun questions you can use to get to know them.

• “What’s something you’re curious about right now?”
• “What’s a small joy from your week?”
• “If you could have one superpower what would it be?”
• “What’s your go-to comfort food/dessert?”
• “What’s the weirdest thing you believed in as a kid?”
• “What’s something you really want to do this year?”

Take control of your dating life (and have some fun!)

One of the most important parts of dating is to have some fun! Enjoy getting to know some new people, even if at times it feels like a never-ending conveyor belt of bad option after bad option. Even if they’re not for you, you could use fun conversation starters to have more interesting talks with people. If you get a dating number, you could also get a fun retro phone that adds some decoration to your place. Double fun: When friends come over and point it out you can go “that’s my dating phone!” Imagine the conversations!

Most importantly, give yourself some grace as you go through this process. You’re not the only one having a hard time, and if you’re looking to have some better conversations Ooma has your back.