THE COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION

The first communications satellite, called Telstar, was launched from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962. This marked the star of  rapid transmission of TV signals over wide areas. What we take for granted today-satellite television, cellular telephones, wireless and high-speed Internet connections, and so forth-were part of science fiction only 40 years ago. Teenagers today are the first real citizens of the digital world. Unlike their parents, they have grown up in a world in which electronic delivery of information and entertainment is natural and more accepted than conventional forms like the newspaper, tape, or film.