You must look at this blog. It is just one little paragraph and the graph of when some of the technology was invented and how long it took to get into each household. I was surprised to find out that the internet was even around till about 1990. Make sure you click on the graph to make it bigger so it is easier to read. Also, look at how long it took for the telephone to be adopted compared to the cell phone. Why do you think that is? Are we more understanding of change now than we used to be? Are we in need of a cell phone than we were of a telephone? I don’t know, but I bet it has something to do with Americans being in the fast paced world that we need everything at our fingertips. Look at the new Ziphone. (I think that is what it is called) I even looked at the invention of a washer back in the 1925 where a dryer wasn’t invented till 1950’s. I guess they didn’t need to dry their clothes in the winter till the 50’s?? I just found it interesting. Be sure to check it out.
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Nate Lowell // February 25, 2008 at 1:23 pm
The graphic is a *bit* misleading on the line labeled “internet” … I can’t tell if it’s because there’s some threshhold that they’re counting or – more likely – the authors have made the typical mistake and equated the internet with the web.
The internet has been around since ‘69 and when I first signed on in the early 80s, there were 10million people world wide. It’s *possible* that the scale of the graph rounds that to zero until the web browser made the internet more accessible.
It’s worth noting that the scale on this graph IS misleading in terms of numbers because it’s stated in percent of households. The number of households has been going up steadily. In 1915 the US population was about 100M. By 1968 it was 200M and it went over 300M around 2000.
That actually would make those curves steeper if expressed in numbers of households instead of percentages.
What you’re seeing is a classic adoption curve based on standard distribution. What varies is the speed with which the early adopters influence the general population. You’re also seeing the effect of the Boomers as they all left home to start their own households. Not only did they adopt the technologies they knew at home, they took advantage of new products that were targeted directly to them.
Interesting graph.