Pew Internet and American LifeFor many Americans, having the latest electronic gadget or experimenting with the newest tech fad is a habit they develop at an early age and never break. Although these ardent technophiles are a minority of the population, their trendsetting ways often ripple widely in society. Many people, in time, wind up following the technological trail cleared by these pioneers. In fact, Americans have become steady adopters of devices and services that enable them to gather and distribute information, and these have given us flexibility in how we communicate, altered the patterns of how we stay in touch with others, and even influenced the content of our messages.
In this report, we take an inventory of the communications gadgets and services that American use and examine the variations within the population of technology users.