Diffusion Of Innovations
Diffusion Theory has always been quite a hard concept for me to understand at first. Although I never attempted to learn it, I always heard the phrase being thrown around during class. After finally doing some research on it, it is a surprisingly easy theory to comprehend. The basic use of diffusion theory is to see how, why, and at what rate new technology or ideology can spread through a certain type of population and culture.
Everett Rogers was a Communications Professor who wrote a book promoting the Diffusion Theory in 1962. He claimed that four main elements were the cause of the spread of new ideas. It was innovation, time, communication channels, and social systems. It is a crazy concept to get into when you think of how it affects us every day. We constantly hear advertisements to buy certain products or see reviews online trying to persuade us to spend money. These are all prime examples of seeing the Diffusion Theory in our everyday lives.
The Diffusion Theory requires a five-step process that has to go through communication channels to hit the social systems to fully spread. At first, the individual has to use or see an innovation. The need to experience it for the first time. After the individual will be interested in the innovation and proceed to ask questions. Next, the individual decides whether or not to use the innovation and if it will benefit his life. They then start to implement the innovation to help them out and then finally start using it on a daily basis and recommending it to others. Overall the Diffusion Theory is a very interesting topic to look into and definitely gave me a new perspective when new ideas are found and watching how they spread through society.
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