Diffusion of Innovation

 In class, we learned about Everett Roger's theory of diffusion of innovations. This theory, summarized, showcases the rise and fall of a trend. From the phase of getting it off of the ground to the trend in its peak of popularity to its fall-off that it will inevitably have. Looking alongside the technology that I chose to present, Facebook, along with the diffusion of innovations this post will be going into depth about how Facebook aligns with the diffusion of innovation.

The first step of the diffusion of innovations is the pioneer stage. The pioneers of Facebook would be the original founders, as well as the following students: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra. These students approached Zuckerberg with the original idea of Facebook, which Zuckerberg took and made his own. The original idea was to be a virtual phonebook for students at the university to better connect with their peers. The pioneer stage would also include the original group of Harvard who joined the website when it first launched, as they were the "trial dummies" for the now popular website.

The second step in the diffusion of innovations is called the Early Adapters stage. In the case of Facebook, this would be the second group of students that the website was opened up to. This includes other Ivy League schools such as Cornell, Brown, and Stanford. These students joined Facebook about a year after it was kickstarted. This step is after the trial phase, which is why it was pushed out to more students, to gain more traction before it was unveiled to the public for consumption.

The third step in the diffusion of innovations is the late adopter stage. Now while this stage of the theory is titled this, it could be argued that this stage fits the vocabulary of maturation that was given to us in class. This phase is when the general public was given access to the technology and this is when the first boom of the website started. Maturation is the act of maturing which could be said not only about the website but its users in general. Once the app was opened it switched the target audience from college students to anyone who wanted to connect with people that its users haven't connected with in a while.

The final step in the diffusion of innovations is the laggard stage. This is the stage where everyone skeptical of Facebook began to join the app after seeing all of its positive effects. These could include individuals who are not confident with technology or individuals who just do not trust technology, and think that is harmful to them. To conclude, this theory fits right alongside the rise of Facebook. It shows its original spike in popularity, along with its peak when it was released to the general public.