The communications world radically changed in the first two decades of the 21st century.

Various approaches to “the Digital Dilemma” that had seemed promising at the turn of the 21st century (when film was still king) had to be replaced over the next two decades with new solutions as digital photography evolved.

1. “Digital photography”

• In the year 2000, almost no photographs were made with digital cameras (probably far fewer than 1 percent)

• By the year 2020, almost all photographs were made with digital cameras (probably far more than 99 percent)

2. “The Internet”

• In the year 2000 there were about 17 million websites

• By the year 2020, there were 75 times that many websites

3. “The smartphone”

• In the year 2000 there were no smartphones

• By the year 2020, there were well over 3 billion smartphones in use (meaning that in 2020 roughly 3 billion more people now carried a camera with them than had done so just 20 years earlier; see also here).