Blog #8 Diffusion of Innovation Theory

 

The Diffusion of Innovation Theory is relevant to almost every invention, idea, or widespread thought process. The theory is visualized as a bell curve that starts with the pioneers or innovators, these are the people who first think and initiate discussion about an idea or concept. These are typically people who are open to taking risks and experimenting and learning along the way. Next, as you progress up the bell curve shape you come across the early adopters, who are typically trendy people who enjoy trying new things such as new technology products. Then the theory progresses to influence the majority of society in the early majority phase. In this phase, the individuals "pave the way for use of an innovation within mainstream society and are a part of the general population."  Making your way down the curve the late majority will have their turn to hop on the bandwagon of the innovation. These are people who witnessed the early majority take part and have a positive experience, they then join in after the risk is lessened and the product has less of a demand among the general population. Finally, the laggards will be the people who first resisted the innovation, they are risk-averse people who tend to be cautious and conduct research before purchasing products. The laggards wait so long to get on board with the innovation it makes their daily tasks more challenging without it. 

I think that these phases are very interesting and allow for a lot of self freedom for society. This theory allows people to decide if they want to take a risk, play it safe or follow suit from their peers. This is one of the most relevant and interesting theories I have learned about so far in college because it truly does relate to all aspects of life. 

In relation to my EOTO project on Instant Messaging, I think that at the time most businesses and major companies were in the early adopters phase. I think these because this would have made communication very conveneint and efficient in a large office space / setting. I think that after the security issues and data breaches that were initially experienced were solved then the early and late majority would decide to start using instant messaging.