Blog Post #8

Diffusion of innovation, a theory created by Everett Rogers that argues innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system.  There are 5 major elements to Roger’s theory, the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system. Innovation is seen as a broad term, but here, innovation is seen as a product or object that is seen as “new” that is available to be studied. Adopters are a minimal unit of analysis, most of the time they are individuals but they can also be organizations like schools, companies, etc. Communication Channels allow information to be spread from one place to another, for example, from organizations to people. Time is also necessary for innovation because it is rarely adopted quickly and on its own. Lastly, the social system, which is a combination of external and internal influences and combined will influence a potential adopter. (“Diffusion of Innovations,”n.d.,1-3)

After reading about this theory and looking back on the EOTO inventions, Many forms of social media were hard for people to adapt to. Younger generations, were early adopters of this new technology and adapted to it very quickly. 95% of Generation Z has access to a smartphone and uses social media every day. This generation and Generation Y grew up with the inventions of digital technology, which brought along social media and made them adapt to this change the easiest. As for older generations, they did not grow up with this technology so the change was much harder for them. It took them much longer to learn how to use the apps and their purpose as well. Because they did not grow up with technology, the older generation tends to not see the purpose of social media and spends much less time scrolling. As for the people who opt out of social media, there could be many reasons for this, one being that social media is known for having many strong opinions and controversies posted, and a person may not be interested in reading that. Social media is also known for causing depression and anxiety, so a person may stay off to keep their mental health up. One last point is some people just don’t enjoy posting their daily lives on the internet for everyone to see or seeing other people post about their daily lives on social media, which is what these platforms are mainly for, so they don’t have a need to join. 

With every technological advancement, it is going to be hard to get everyone on board right when it is created. Not everyone is going to have the same views on whether or not they need it in their lives. Most of the time younger generation is more likely to adapt to change first because they are used to the change and growth of technology. As for older generations, for many years of their lives, they had the same technology with few advancements and it’s harder for them to see the need for change. With new advances in technology happening like social media, communication is becoming faster and easier. You can keep in touch with friends and family from all over the world, and see photos of what they are doing. Though not everyone may want to participate in this advancement it’s handy to have.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, April 13). Diffusion of innovations. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations