Diffusion of Innovations

     Diffusion of Innovations is the theory of how technology gets adopted by the people of greater society. I found learning about this in class very interesting. My instructor explained it in terms of a graph. On the X axis is time, and the Y axis is Penetration of society. Many ideas don't get past the

pioneers' stage and just remain experimental, while others make it all the way to the end. A good example of a product that is moving quickly on this chart is the Mac computer. If I were to take a guess, it is now in the early majority stage, but it was not too long ago that people considered the Mac to be a luxury item. Personally, I don't plan on using one for personal use at all in the future, but I may get one for my job and use it as a work computer. This will most likely make me a laggard. Laggards are those who adopt the product last in a sizable number of people. After laggards, it's the long trail; these are people who may or may not adopt the technology. Typically, no more than 85% of the population will adopt the product. This is mainly due to old people refusing to change their ways. 

    A story my professor told me was quite interesting; back in the day, his college campus was picked to test Facebook. He never found much use for it, but his classmates, on the other hand, loved it and became early adopters. Soon after the product was released, it grew and grew. Now, not many young people use it for anything other than the marketplace. I found the shift interesting indeed. Overall, this is a great theory that helps explain a very important issue of how people get involved with tech on and off campus. 

EoTo 1 Reaction

 Today in class, we all presented our Projects on the tech timeline. Everyone's presentations were quite interesting. Personally, I discussed and presented the US Postal Service for mine. You can view some of the information I presented on this very blog. 

    My Peers all presented different topics. Some chatted about Netflix, others about Carrier Pigeons. But I want to highlight the ones I found most interesting. The first thing is first is Casset tapes. The student who talked about them did a fantastic job explaining the history of them. For example, they were made by a fella called Lou Otten and released to the public in 1964. The most popular cassette tape was the Sony Walkman. The most interesting fact about them I learned is that they are slowly making a comeback. They are a cheaper retro alternative to vinyl and are attractive to collectors.     Another interesting Technology we learned about was Netflix. Did you know it started as a video delivery

service? I sure didn't! But this was so interesting to me. It is unrecognizable from where it started. It first became a subscription service in 1999, and it now creates its own films and TV shows that it distributes on its platform.     Lastly, I want to talk about the Telephone. This goes without saying, but this technology revolutionized
EVERYTHING! The first phone was made in 1876 and then slowly turned into the phones we know today. The phone was very good at its job. Eventually, when it became mainstream, and everyone had a landline, people had
the major problem of people eavesdropping. This would also create the term party line since so many people were on the call at the same time.     In conclusion, my peers presented their inventions wonderfully! I look forward to the next EoTo to see all the other kinds of fun topics people bring to the table. Till next time!