17pc Americans still find it difficult to part with their landline

For a surprising number of people, the call of the landline is still so strong that they find it nearly impossible to give up.

In a list of "technologies that would be very hard to give up" compiled by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 17 percent of Americans still listed the landline, the Washington Post reported.

Compare that with the 10 percent who said "social media" was their must-have technology.

Pew's Internet and American Life Project reviews 25 years of the Web and takes stock of attitudes toward technology.

Yet, while the landline is still vital to more people than you may expect, its holding power is on a steady slide.

Of current landline users, only 28 percent still count it as invaluable. That's down from the 46 percent of hard-wired faithful who said the same in 2006. As wireless coverage gets more reliable, chances are those numbers will continue to fall.