There is minimal information on the adoption rates of new technologies around the globe. So this section is limited to the USA. The graph, below, illustrates the rate of adoption of new technologies in America.

Thus, for electricity, it took 46 years for this technology to reach 25% of the US population, from 1873, the date of the commercial release of the technology. In contrast, it only took 7 years to achieve the same feat with the internet.