Blog: #9 : Diffusion of Innovations

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I have recently learned a lot about Twitter through the research project we have done on EOTO technology. The Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that looks to explain how, why, and the rate technology spreads. 

In the graph, it shows how people react to technology over time. When using this theory for Twitter, it makes a lot of sense to me. Professor Smith talked about how he was a "pioneer", or as labeled in the graph, "innovator" for Twitter. Two years before Twitter launched, they did a test trial on people to see how the public would use Twitter before it officially launched to the public. Early Adopters would be people like myself. Twitter launched in 2007; I started my Twitter account in 2014 and have been using it as a daily form of social media since then. 

I believe that so many people became early adopters to Twitter because of the same reason I did; it was a way to find out information and keep in touch with friends and anyone with a bigger platform who released beneficial news to their followers. Since Twitter is easily accessible, as well as quick and easy to use, it attracted many early adopters. Twitter also spread through word of mouth, it was very up and coming in the first couple of years after it was launched to the public.

This is how the five stages of the adoption process were for me when discovering Twitter: 

• Knowledge/Awareness: this is when I was in 7th grade (slightly too young to be using Twitter), but everyone in my class was starting to use it and it was a very popular form of social media. 
• Persuasion: I was interested to find out how my favorite celebrities were using Twitter as they constantly were promoting their Twitter accounts on other social media platforms. 
• Decision: I used the Twitter app to keep in touch with my friends as well as find out new information about celebrities. Once I realized how much time I was spending on the app, I decided I would continue to use it
• Implementation: I looked at how Twitter was impacting my daily life, I found it useful for what I was looking for through the app which was staying in the loop with what celebrities and my friends were up to every day. 
• Confirmation/Continuation: I decided that Twitter was a great source for me to de-stress and there were many ways that I could use Twitter for my own benefit. I confirmed to myself that I would become a daily user of Twitter and still use it for the same reasons to this day. 

While Twitter has become very popular, there are many people who do not use Twitter and have no interest in doing so. My parents are an example of these "Laggards". They believe that at their age, there is no reason for them to have social media as they struggle with new technology as it is. This is a reason many people do not use new, trending social media apps. Another reason is that people do not see Twitter as resourceful for them, or they simply just do not see a desire in any social media. There are many negatives in addition to positives when it comes to using Twitter, but I personally believe that there are more positives than negatives.