The significance of computers in the home is rapidly changing. Just a few years ago the home computer was little more than a home toy – albeit a potentially educational toy – for the children, occasionally used by the home professional worker for word processing or even for home accounts. Like the television set it was a consumer item, but being stand-alone it even lacked the networked communications links that a TV offers. The PC – PC will be used as shorthand to include any make of personal computer, including Mac – was, therefore, less intrusive than the television in the social activity of the family. It was just as likely to be located in the children’s bedroom as in the family living room.
