ABSTRACT
Communication technologies are evolving at a much faster pace today than they used to be, and the way in which we differentiate technologies is more about concepts rather than products. For example, audiocassettes and compact discs seem doomed in the face of rapid adoption of newer forms of digital audio recordings. The growing popularity of telephony led many to experiment with Marconi’s radio technology as another means for interpersonal communication. The chapter examines the importance of quantitative records of technology adoption, any understanding and interpretation of these numbers should consider the social contexts and structures in each historical period. As the popularity of print media forms generally declined throughout the 1990s, the popularity of the Internet grew rapidly, particularly with the increase in highspeed broadband connections, for which adoption rates achieved comparability with previous new communications media. Consumer flexibility through the use of digital media became the dominant media consumption theme during the first decade of the new century.
