Sometime over the last few years, the pattern followed by technology changed radically. Ten years ago, for example, the Internet was a minority pastime. Many people, who weren't actually stupid, didn't know what it was. At this point, people would bring their expectations of technology home with them and ask, why can't we do some of this word processing (or whatever) here?
It's changed now. The home is where a lot of technical innovation takes place, and as if to back that up this report on the BBC's site points to the domestic rather than business setting as where Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is actually taking off. Of course the home technology doesn't upscale as easily as the business technology downscaled; instant messaging and domestic voice over IP don't need the same rigour over security as the business environment dictates, so it's not just going to be a matter of buying the same stuff in again.
And young people are preferring to text rather than to talk, the report says - am I just being an old whatsit, or is that actually worrying?
