By definition, modern on-line services are videotex. That is, they utilize the telephone lines and provide two-way communication. But no one calls them videotex anymore. They are essentially the evolution of the videotex medium that has been growing steadily since 1983 (O'Neal 1991, 31).
One study reported that subscriptions to these services grew by 47 percent between 1983 and 1991 (O'Neal 1991, 31). Another, by Simba Information, Inc., said they grew by 90 percent between 1986 and 1990 (Alber 1993, 5). In 1991, there were 5.2 million total subscribers (Alber 1993, 10). One study said, however, that as of July 1994, only seven percent of U.S. homes had a subscription to an on-line service (Ziegler 1995, B6). As of 1993, Prodigy boasted more than two million users (Easterly 1993, 44). Prodigy and CompuServe each are attracting new subscribers at a rate of one million per year (Kainz 1994c, E3). An optimistic 1990 prediction said that 97 percent of U.S. households would be subscribers to on-line services by 2000 and that 50 percent would be casual users (O'Neal 1991, 32). Whatever the true numbers, the commercial on-line services are on their way to becoming household fixtures.
The Internet, too, has experienced explosive growth recently as more and more people tap into its vast resources. It, like radio, was also a product of war: the Cold War. It's original use, as previously mentioned, was to provide a national communication system that could survive partial destruction.
The problem is, there's no way to get an accurate census of the Internet population. One report says it is growing at a rate of two new members per second to a projected 120 million people, or four times the size of the population of Canada, by 1997 (Kainz 1994c, E3). Macmillan Publishing put the early 1995 population at 25 to 30 million (Schwabach 1995, G1). Between the Internet and the other services and networks, the message seems clear that cyberspace is the future of communication. "There are at least 12 terabytes of information flowing through inter-connected computer networks in the world today -- equivalent to the content of 20,000 jam-packed library book shelves" (Kainz 1994c E3).