The prediction, in brief:

Vid-phones will become commonplace in our work lives. They will become everyday in our family lives. We’ll party with them. We’ll avoid travelling by using them. We’ll redefine our relationships with them. We’ll wonder how we ever got along without them.

Predictor: Stahlman, Mark

Prediction, in context:

In a 1994 article for Red Herring, Mark Stahlman, the president of New Media Associates, shares his take on the Internet and the future of new media. Stahlman writes:”Vid-phones will be PC-based. They will cost lessthan $500 as a PC add-on. They will take off even faster than CD-ROMs have. They will use ISDN phone lines. They will use the processing power of next-generation micros and be implemented largely in software. They will become standard features on many systems. Vid-phones will become commonplace in our work lives. They will become everyday in our family lives. We’ll party with them. We’ll avoid travelling by using them. We’ll redefine our relationships with them. We’ll wonder how we ever got along without them. Many believe that there will be substantial resistance to vid-phones because we ‘dress up’ so much to appear in public that they believe that if making a phone call requires wearing make-up, the call won’t be made. I doubt that this will pose a very serious problem. We are likely to change both the way we present ourselves and take advantage of the technology to alter our images.”

Biography:

Mark Stahlman was the president of the New York-based research and financial services firm New Media Associates in the 1990s. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)

Date of prediction: March 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Communication

Subtopic: Internet Telephony

Name of publication: Red Herring

Title, headline, chapter name: New Media – What’s Real & What’s Not

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.redherring.com/mag/issue09/media.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Taylor, Kellen L.