Of course, this is nothing new. The Internet as a communications medium cuts into time spent with other media. We all know this. But think of it this way - I first informed my family of the utility of the Internet in 1995. It's taken them five years to embrace it themselves and begin to use it in useful ways.
Old habits die hard.
This adage should have new meaning for all of us as we watch the consumer audience shift its media consumption habits to accommodate the Internet. We might think that a channel of communication becomes a mass medium when it reaches a certain level of participation, maybe a certain number of users or subscribers, however one would like to term them. Let's leave that magic number to the folks who work at universities - they seem to dig that kind of thing. What's important is that we think of the Internet as its own animal. And each one of these interests needs to develop on its own.