Landlines are back for the kids of SJI

Published 1:30 am Monday, February 23, 2026

“Between ages 10 and 16, every child has approximately 8,760 hours that smartphones typically displace,” Alexandra Iarussi, mother of four boys and co-founder of the Mythic Farms Foundation, explained to the Journal. “Four hours a day, six years, one childhood.”

The National Center for Health Statistics backs up Iarussi’s claims — one study found that 50% of teenagers actually spend more than four hours a day on screens. While data is fuzzy around the specific effects on mental health that come with social media use and extended screen time, it’s clear there is a connection of some kind, and it’s having an impact.

Alex and her husband, John, have witnessed the use of smartphones and social media among children with alarm, not sure how to navigate the issue with their own children. “The ubiquity of devices in our daily lives, and recognizing, humbly, their influence on ourselves as adults, has had us exploring solutions to mitigate the exposure and harm for our kids,” Alex said.

“But the harms we’ve seen from social media may prove to be quaint compared to what’s coming with Artificial Intelligence,” she continued. “Synthetic content already blurs real and fabricated. Chatbots offer endless companionship that mimics empathy yet lacks humanity. Algorithms create a limitless hall of mirrors that confuse and distort reality.”

Enter their partnership with Tin Can Phones, a Seattle-based company that is producing “the new-school landline for friends.” The design is clever: It looks like the tin can/string communication devices kids used to craft to marvel at the sound of their voices traveling to each other, and the device is simple: it can make screenless phone calls. Calls from tin-can to tin-can are free, and a $10 a month line can be purchased to make other calls.

The Iarrusis want to provide one for every family on San Juan Island.

“Can we reclaim childhood connection?” their website, www.mythicfarms.com, asks. “Yes – and on San Juan Island, we’re perfectly positioned to make it happen.”

The first 300 families to sign up will receive a tin-can phone free of charge, courtesy of the Mythic Farms Foundation. The Iarrusis were thrilled when 120 families signed up on the first day, just from word of mouth and text threads.

“We hope this becomes a genuine turning point for how families on San Juan Island think about childhood and technology. Our goal is to create enough collective momentum that delaying smartphones until 16 becomes the norm – not the exception,” Alex said. “Parents have told us they’ve felt isolated in their concerns, worried their kids would be the only ones left out. Now, they’re finding a whole community prioritizing a similar value. When enough families commit together, no child feels singled out, and the ‘new normal’ takes hold.”

John’s career as the CEO of Legislative IQ, a software tool that tracks and analyzes legislation, overlaps with internet technology and state and local-level policy-making. He’s witnessed how ineffective government policies are in protecting children from technological advancements. The rate of development within tech moves at hyperspeed while the legislation needed to harness it gets stuck behind red tape, lobbyist agendas and legislative calendars. Meanwhile, the richest companies on earth are using every tool available to keep kids’ attention with subscriptions, weekly updates, daily game drops, videos and an ever-changing algorithm. It’s no surprise that the internet is known as the wild west.

“This isn’t about being anti-technology – many of us work in tech and rely on digital tools daily,” Alex said. “It’s about being pro-childhood.”

Amelia Schaefer, island mom of two 9-year-old boys, and an early adopter of the Tin Can phone, says it’s better than a normal landline. “With Tin Can, only approved numbers can call or be called. So we don’t have to worry about strangers calling, or the good old-fashioned prank calls,” she explained. “The boys love the freedom that it has given them. Of course, they still ask for a smartphone of their own since ‘everyone at school has one.’ Which makes me really sad. Do all third graders really have their own phones? But my husband and I are not going to give in.”

Mythic Farms Foundation sees this as step one in a long-term initiative preserving childhood presence while supporting families in navigating rapidly evolving technologies. They’re exploring grant funding and are welcoming donors and volunteers who would like to help expand this effort. They hope to put together plans soon to expand to other islands in the county.

“In our small, tight-knit community, distributing these to families creates an immediate transformation in quality connectivity,” the Mythic Farms website says. “Kids can call friends freely, play dates happen organically, and the smartphones can wait.”

Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can, hopes this is just the beginning. “What John and Alex Iarussi are doing with Mythic Farms Foundation on San Juan Island is exactly why we started Tin Can in the first place,” he said. “It’s really special to see a community come together and be thoughtful about how technology fits into childhood.”

“We’ve seen that when parents band together, it takes a lot of the pressure off and makes real change possible,” Kittleson continued. “Watching San Juan Island rally around Tin Can and support each other in creating a new normal means a lot to us (and me personally as a founder!). We’re proud to help build this movement and excited to see them lead the way for other communities.”