Rodgers, Diffusion of Innovations theory is a very robust theory that I have learned after reading I can not only be useful in this class, but in a couple of my classes moving forward. The main definition for this theory that explains how, why, and the rater of how new ideas and innovations spread. Rodgers explains the Diffusion of Innovations theories "five main elements that go into this theory as well as help the spread of new innovations; the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system". Diffusion_of_innovations
The one innovation that I chose to look at through the eyes of Rodgers theory is the infamous app... Instagram. Society loves to read about instagrams success story. "Instagram was launched in October of 2010. At the time the app was seeing about 10,000 downloads a day. However, by April of 2012 the app was seeing about 100,000 downloads a day" https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/24/the-rise-of-instagram-tracking-the-apps-spread-worldwide/. I believe this app caught on and spread widely throughout the US because it was one of the newer social media app that kickstarted sharing our lives and what we were up too. Our society is addicted too sharing our lives and maybe even trying to one up one another using the app.
I believe that so many people became early adopters rather than later adopters of this new technology because of how new it was having to do with the topic of social media. Back in 2010 we had only newly been introduced to twitter and Facebook. Therefore, when instagram came out it was an exciting new app that people could latch onto. Another reason why I believe so many adopted the app early on was because famous actors/actresses, athletes, and online influencers at the time jumped onto it... so we as fans wanted to see what they were up too. Also, naturally those famous people being our idols or people we looked up too we wanted to follow along with the trend of the app. If you really think about it if no famous people joined this app it probably wouldn't have grown in popularity like it has in the past decade. I believe there are many late adopters as well. However, the late adopters are more so the older group of people such as our parents or grandparents. It took them longer to join the app because when they were young they didn't have anything like it. Us however being young when it came out we quickly jumped to it for our own entertainment in a way.
The negative effects that come with this fairly new technology app is what most people would come to think of when they think of the main negative affect social media more specifically instagram has on people that are on it. The main negative effect we can all agree is that it causes anxiety in all aspects. According to the research published by the American Psychological Association "studies have linked instagram to depression, body-image concerns, self-esteem issues, social anxiety, and many other issues that occur within our mental state of mind"(APA). These negative affects mostly will affect the younger population rather than the older population that are on the app. I believe some people don't join instagram for these reasons... it really does take a toll on peoples mental health when they start comparing themselves to instagram models/actresses. It has been proven that people that have never downloaded this app have had a better, happier, and healthier life by just not being on this. Their mental health is 10x better than someone that go on instagram constantly everyday. At some point we have to admit that the positive of this app do not outweigh the bad. Some positives of instagram include that it; improves communication with people/friends, artistic ability, find connections, and exchange information with friends and family in a very original way. However, at what cost? The cost is how suicide rates in America has been rising since the launch of this app because of how it causes people depression and social anxiety etc. We're losing kids as young as 10 years old because of what they're being exposed too. Kids are being exposed to too much being as young as they're. They're learning things that they should not know about or develop a way of thinking that they have to be the stereotype of a "pretty girl"... skinny.
Therefore, looking at instagram through the diffusion theory of innovations I have learned the how, why, and why it was created. By looking at this app through this theory I truly believe that this is an app that should have been made better and should be censored to hopefully make young kids/teens on this app feel more confident instead of more sad or insecure.
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