The passion I had for the marriage of media and technology in the mid-80’s when I created one of the first online social networks is still with me today. I’m almost giddy when I see my 12-year-old digital native at home using his iTouch to study for an upcoming school exam. And I get a big smile on my face when the other digital native in the house asks when he’ll be able to simply talk to the computer instead of using a mouse and keyboard.

He might get his wish before too long, if these 2009 Internet stats are any indication of where we’re headed technologically (and how fast we’ll get there). As Dylan said, The Times, They Are a-Changin’.

• ~1.73 billion global Internet users (it was ~16 million in 1995 and ~365 million in 2000)
• ~90 trillion e-mails sent
• ~27 million tweets per day
• ~350 million people on Facebook
• ~4 billion photos hosted by Flickr
• ~12 billion videos viewed monthly on YouTube

And mobile phone (and mobile broadband) use is exploding, with the US mobile user population nearing 78% in 2010, or some 242 million people, according to eMarketer (versus ~2.7 million in 1989).

While 3G networks continue to suffer from over subscription and huge amounts of data trafic, the promise of 4G (WiMax and LTE) might not be enough if mobile adoption continues its current growth; Cisco expects mobile data traffic to increase 39-fold over the next five years. AT&T’s data traffic has grown 5,000% over the past 3 years.

The there’s the portable Internet-enabled devices. “Always-On Mobile Devices and Networks: New Opportunities to Reach Consumers“, a report by eMarketer published in January 2010, considers the following four categories of portable Internet-enabled devices the most relevant:

• Netbooks (mini notebook computers with screens 10″ or less used for less advanced applications)
• E-readers (tablets designed for the consmption of books, magazines and newspapers)
• Media Players (portable devices whose main function is music or video)
• Gaming Platforms (hand helds designed mainly to play cartridge, disc-based or downloaded games but that also allow for playback of stored audio and video content)

And marketers take heed – the convergence of the Web and TV is here. Internet Enabled Television Sets (IETVs) can connect directly to the Internet without the need for a media adapter. Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, YouTube and more at your fingertips – all while you’re watching American Idol.

“The number of Americans going online to an information service or directly to the Internet has more than doubled in the past year, but most consumers are still feeling their way through cyberspace. Few see online activities as essential to them, and no single online feature, with the exception of E-Mail, is used with any regularity….Among those who currently use their modems, the study detected a decided softness in attitudes toward online activities and a fragile pattern of use. Only 32% of those who go online say they would miss it ‘a lot’ if it were no longer available.” – Study of Internet use in America by the Center For The People & The Press; October 16, 1995

My digital natives may just get the chance to interact directly with the computer without a keyboard or mouse, dive deeper into augmented reality than we ever thought possible, use gestures to control the (Internet Enabled) TV, their skin as an input canvas/touchscreen and probably a whole lot more.

What’s your take on all of this? I’d love to hear from you.

Tagged as: 3g, 4g, communication, global internet, internet, internet media, internet stats, internet technology, lte, mass media, media player, mobile phone, mobile phones, netbook, portable internet, scientific revolution, social media, technological convergence, Technology, technology convergence, telecommunications, wimax, world wide web

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