Blog Post #8: Diffusion of Innovations

The diffusion of innovations theory is something that most haven't heard about or even realized is a real thing, even though it's become very prominent everywhere around us. It's derived from modern society, where it is constantly in motion all around us, but it isn't something that has been brought forth into light as an actual theory most understand and know about. It seeks to explain not only how but why and at the rate at which new ideas and technology spread through the consumers, market share, and much more.

The theory follows the notion that diffusion is a process where an innovation is communicated through a series of channels over a period of time by a group of participants. 

This theory was crafted by the late Everett M. Rogers, an American communication theorist and sociologist, who proposed that five main elements to this theory influence the main spread of an idea, those being the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system. The entire process relies heavily on the social capital that's being influenced and utilized, alongside the innovation having to become widely adopted throughout its lifespan to be self-sustaining. Through said adoption, the innovation can end up reaching critical mass, which is just a sufficient number of adopters of a new technology. 

The innovation I'm going to focus on is Instagram, starting from its first big boom onto the scene and original critical mass milestone hit. In mid-October of 2010, Instagram was launched as a fairly simple site, just a picture-sharing and social app that people could talk to each other on. It began to reach its innovation step 2 years later when it began to implement new features that enticed more and more people, and then finally mass exploded into stardom when it included Android users that could utilize the application. The adopters hit its critical mass capacity around this time of 2012, and it effectively made an enormous breakthrough into the mainstream media as one of the most influential and prominent apps that was being utilized daily by millions of users and hitting around 50 million users at this time.

Most people got attracted to this app and became adopters due to the certain features it provided you with, with photo and video sharing, editing, tweaking, social aspects, and so much more that enticed early users and ended up expanding it so heavily that just kept roping in more and more people to the app. 

Some were later to the party, usually being younger kids who were just downloading the app after learning that others around their age used the app, or people not on social media much that got convinced by a close person in their life, family, friends, etc. that convinced them to do so, theses being the main 2 types of later adopters.

Although Instagram is still prominently riding high and showcasing how dominant of an app it is even to this day, there are glaring downsides to it that you can see and find just a few minutes of being on the app. Prominent issues like botting, where you buy followers, likes, and comments on your post can be seen literally everywhere on Instagram, leading to an annoying rise of scams and buying your way to fame, the extremeness IG models take photos to with their lighting, effects, and their looks, which only serve to get them popular for their body and for comparison with them. 

Stuff like the comparisons people immediately start making to these people who look "too good" becomes incredibly detrimental to people's self-image and leads to heavy self-deprecation and depression over not liking your own body image. Bullying also becomes rampant due to things like these, where under almost any and every post you can find there will be people bullying others, and Instagram has literally become known for the insane amount of people that harass others like this.

There are still plenty of positives throughout the entirety of the app that can be found very quickly, like the good people under most posts providing actual insight and realistic expectations, formed groups of like-minded individuals, a place to express yourself, and much more overall. The positives I think personally outweigh the negatives and are the reason scrolling through Instagram is so enticing and enjoyable and brings more help than harm to others and the media around.