Diffusion Theory


Diffusion of Innovations is, "a theory that seeks to explain how, why and, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread." Numerous technologies have followed this same pattern. To better understand the why and what, it would be beneficial to focus on one technology or app. My example with be TikTok.

TikTok originally merged with Musical.ly which was an app dedicated to short videos with music. These videos would typically be of people doing short dances to parts of a song. In this case, the innovators were influencers who came from Musical.ly to TikTok to continue making content. 

Early adopters of TikTok were most likely these influencer's audience. They came over to TikTok to watch their favorite's new content and they slowly began to create their own content. That is dance videos or other forms of entertainment like short gameplays, news, animations, vlogs, or comedy. These people most likely became early adopters due to their interest in the original creators and/or a curiosity about this new app or video format. The early majority are the general consumers of entertainment. They were drawn in by the fact that there were more than just dance videos appearing on TikTok. The early majority became consumers and not usually creators. 

The late majority of people tended to be more skeptical of the app, unwilling to change what their used to. That possibly being Instagram, Twitter, or even the old Musical.ly. Some people are just late adopters due to their stubbornness to intake another application, and some are paranoid due to the surveillance controversies of TikTok. Finally, we have the laggards. Laggards are the final people to adapt to the new technology. They most likely haven't downloaded TikTok because they don't have a use for it and are stubborn/paranoid like the late majority - but they just take it more seriously. 

Another reason for not adapting to TikTok is probably the possibility of getting addicted to it, much like other apps. Since its a collection of short entertaining videos, it's possible to let time fly by unknowingly. Though TikTok has its downsides, it has its positives. It allows for a quick way to get to know news, a way to connect with communities similar to your own, and has content for all ages. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living Age of AI

Image
The documentary I watched, called In The Age of AI contained a lot of interesting and thought-provoking information. This video went in-depth on how there are both positive and negative aspects to the rapid growth of technology, especially AI. It's important to be aware of the issues that arise with the progression of technology since the world we live in is now dependent on most of it.  In the documentary, I learned about a program called DeepMind  created by Google. It essentially teaches itself whatever it's fed and mimics human brain waves to learn more about the subject. DeepMind also has the ability to create its own unique actions through whatever it was instructed to learn. This was seen in Google's experiment with AlphaGo . The experiment involved giving the AlphaGo program, created by DeepMind tech information about the board game, Go. Their program was put up against Fan Hui , Lee Sedol , and Ke Jie , all professional or champion Go players. The program beat all
Read more

My Top 5 News Sources

Image
      Where you get your news really matters, especially in a world like today. So many things are constantly happening in and out of the United States. It's essential to keep up to date with the latest news so you can live your life well-informed about policies and politics. There are so many sources to choose from, some reliable and some not. It's also essential to gather information from new sources that are both right and left-leaning as well as more in-between to get a better understanding of the issue and not be blinded by an excessively biased source. Here, I've created a list of my top new sources to gather reliable information.  CNN is a popular source in general. It covers both national and international news. I like CNN due to its popularity and widespread reach. I also like how the website has so many different news sections. It covers things like politics and contains articles about health or the stock markets. Most of their news articles are quick and to the
Read more

Final Post: Our Relationship With Technology

Image
Everybody's relationship with technology is different. Some depend on it, some just see it as a means of communication, some only use it for entertainment, and some even despise it. However, technology usage has significantly increased in the past century.  The rate at which we are creating new technology or applications has also significantly risen. For example , the first computers were made in 1950, and in 2000, just 50 years later, we created the smartphone. In an even shorter time, humans began the creation of Artificial Intelligence, which is well on its way to becoming Human level or beyond.  It has become one of humanity's most outstanding achievements and possibly downfalls.  Cell phones, social media, and AI have allowed us to access a plethora of information in seconds. They help us communicate with others easily, build community, and even research things that aren't easily accessible. But with the rise of social media, there has also been a rise in phone/ social
Read more