| The important thing, however, is that it increases options. One can work at home if one wants to. Many want to. Women with small children may find it a godsend. Especially, if the children have their personal computers. The electronic revolution holds out many promises for people confined to one location, whether incarcarated at home because of illness and handicaps or in total institutions (prisons, mental hospitals, etc.)
Many have viewed videotex as the technological means of encouraging the electronic cottage industry. It is viewed as a combination of television and telephone technology. Some see it as an extension of television technology - as two-way television in which you can talk back to it by selecting what you want to see from a menu. Others see it as an extension of telephone technology - as a device for using your telephone to talk to computers with the television screen merely a handy monitor to allow the computer to talk back.
In practice, the vision is far from being realized. There seems to be much public resistance to the penetration of this technology - especially its penetration into the home. The introduction of electronic directories in France generated many fears and the favourite antidote to those fears by the participants was to place the terminals in public places. They are recommending that the new telephone directory follow the penetration path of the telephone which was installed in corner drug stores before being generally accepted into homes.
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