PATHS TO DIGITAL MODERNITY 361
biotic relationships with one another, but they are also just as likely to
give up on them.
At the end of the 1970s, West Germany began to expand its entire tele-
communications infrastructure on a large scale. If it had not done so, the
rapid spread of the Internet since the 1990s would not have been possi-
ble. The fi rst step in this direction was screen text (known as BTX, which
stood for Bildschirmtext), which was presented in West Germany at the
Internationale Funkaustellung (International Radio Exhibition, known as
IFA) in Berlin. After a few initial fi eld tests, it was then introduced across
the country beginning in 1983. Although this new service did not at all
live up to the initial euphoric expectations about the number of users, es-
pecially in private households, it broke new ground once diff erent media
were connected together. It linked communication over the telephone
network with computer monitors and televisions in an interactive way
that made a plethora of information available. Advancements in the mo-
dem technology that were designed to support this communication made
it possible to connect diff erent end devices (BTX terminals or a television
with a BTX decoder) over the telephone network.^37
This service was offi cially discontinued in December 2001 after almost
twenty years in use. In terms of multimediality, BTX can be seen as a pre-
cursor to Internet communication. It was particularly popular in compa-
nies, government offi ces, and institutions, but not nearly as widespread
in private homes. Although it was possible for households to subscribe to
this service, it failed to catch on because, unlike its French counterpart
“Minitel,” it was quite expensive due to the monopoly that the Bundes-
post had over the prices. Despite these diffi culties, BTX nonetheless
contributed to the infi ltration of computer and network-driven forms
of communication into daily life in West Germany. Over the long term,
BTX and videotext, which was introduced at about the same time, as well
as cable television, functioned as the motors behind the expansion and
modernization of the network and telecommunications infrastructure. A
whole slew of new service providers popped up in order to provide con-
tent for this service, and they later supplied data and content for new
types of media. Computers at work or in industrial production, however,
were greeted rather skeptically or even seen as a threat at fi rst, despite
their advantages. Yet it did not take long for new types of media and com-
munication that were made possible through computer technology to be-
come accepted in everyday life in the private sphere. Computers clearly
diff ered in this respect from the other new technologies that were being
discussed in public debates in the 1970s and 1980s. Whereas computers
came to be seen as less of a danger, for instance, the broader public and
most politicians became increasingly skeptical about nuclear energy, and