Although this fraction is certainly growing, it remains highly unrepresentative of the population. The Internet must change if more households are going to use it. Today the courageous few that use the Internet must overcome barriers created by considerably priced equipment and services, inefficient interfaces, and often excruciatingly slow responses. Clearly, they find significant value in the Internet to tolerate such abuse. The Internet can easily be compared to the television in that they both provide entertainment to a viewer or user.
Television is consumed in vast quantities around the world.
Consumer use of the Internet and online services, while increasing, remains small compared with television use. An important factor in consumer demand for television is a desire for passive entertainment. Internet content currently satisfies an entirely different kind of demand. If the Internet is to compete with television as a mass entertainment medium, the industry must invent an interface and format accessible by mass audiences. America Online has attempted to distribute their CD s, offering free hours of Internet access to millions of households across the nation, but some, including myself, find AOL s web interface notably user-friendly.