I haven’t held a phone to my ear since before smartphones were a thing. Headsets existed for land lines. Speakerphone functions existed on land lines as well as early regular cell phones (as opposed to dumb phones which tend to have more functions than the ultra basic phones did back in the nineties).

I’m fairly confident that the last time I held a phone to my ear was before the turn of the century. I know it’s been that long at least since I would have while driving and/or at work. The cell I had at the time worked better by headset, and there were plenty of cheap and decent ones available