Today's world is a very different from what our parents and their parents". It is changing and even more rapidly than ever before. Driving this change is the continuous evolution of the information and communication technology. .
The home is the nexus for these new technologies. According to a report by Singapore Department of Statistic (Ng & Yap 1999), more and more Singaporean families are plugged into an ever-expanding array of information and communication technologies. The use of information and communication technologies has become a central activity at home in Singapore. It is the place where entertainment, schoolwork, workplace, information gathering and communicating with friends and family take place. It is also where marketers are aiming their sights, though consumers like me will ultimately decide what is delivered into the homes. .
The newer information and communication technologies, including mobile phones, fax machines, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal computers and the Internet, join with traditional media technologies such as radio, television, videocassette recorders, digital cameras, and digital video (DVD) players help to connect family members to one another and to the outside world. .
The information and communication technologies are not only present in the home but much activity in the home involves the use of it. Singapore was the second country in Southeast Asia to offer public Internet access in July 1994 (Ang 2000, p. 104). In a report by IDA Singapore (Ng 2003), there were about 65% of households in Singapore had a personal computer in 2002, an increase of 20% compared to ten years ago. 52% of the households have access to Internet services, 32% have Cable TV and a majority of 85% of households had at least one mobile phone in 2002. Moreover, 98.6% and 96.9% of all households have television and telephone service respectively (Ng 2001).
The rapid advances in these new technologies have made the lives of Singaporean easier, and vastly more productive, safe, and even fun and entertaining.
