Fax was always awkward and weird. Resolution sucked and the paper handling was unreliable.
They were never common. They were mostly business tools, and consumers never wanted them. Sometimes you'd be required to send someone a fax, and you'd have to go to an office store. (And pay rather a lot; dollars per page.)
I hope you get to give one a try some day, for kicks, but the thrill will wear off fast.
Are you sure about that? I remember we had one at home when I grew up, so I assumed they were very common at the time. (And it's not like we had this crazy business driven family use of it.)
About the best data point I can cite is that I never saw one in a TV show.I don't think the Huxtables had a home fax machine. (Though maybe I just watched the wrong programs, and we're talking about a very long time ago so memory could fail.)
Now that you mention it, I think I only remember one from the simpsons.
But based on [1] my mom really was an outlier for getting a fax machine. Mabye we had enough contact with beurocracy to make it work it. :D Even in 1995 only 1.5 million out of 36 million (4,1%) households had one. (Although I remember it from ~2000, so too bad the data doesn't go there.)
For the US with 14 million out of 98 million households (14%) fax machines were more popular for ordinary households than in germany. (But home-use was never the issue in the fax debate anyway, just fun facts :) )
They were never common. They were mostly business tools, and consumers never wanted them. Sometimes you'd be required to send someone a fax, and you'd have to go to an office store. (And pay rather a lot; dollars per page.)
I hope you get to give one a try some day, for kicks, but the thrill will wear off fast.