A basic understanding of Diffusion of Innovation in the innovation of Social Media into our daily lives

      Diffusion of innovation was a hard concept for me to understand at first. I knew it was the acceptance of new idea or notions into cultures. But how did this apply to my daily everyday life? It can be based on the ever growing use of social media. Social Media has evolved through the spectrum of popularity. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram are everywhere. Rather it being on a phone or a computer its constantly being used. Each of these forms of social media is a form of communication. In today's culture, we can get enough of communication. This then leads to the question how are these websites popular and how they are adopted into our lives.

        First lets take a look at the method we read about in the article. I have taken the characteristics of innovation and made a formula out of them. The formula is RCCTO and this stands for relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial ability, and observability. First, we look at what the websites offer us the choice of wanting to sign up for them. Once a person signs up they see if the websites are compatible for them. They try to figure out if they like the layout. Then comes the second step and third steps of understanding the website of and then using it. An example of this would be making statuses on Facebook and then realizing you can respond back to others. The website through trial then becomes a need and is then innovated into our life and we observe the outcomes of using it.

      The process of innovation is laid out but how did this diffusion of social media come to be for an individual? This is due to acceptance. Acceptance having do with what other circumstance, This other circumstance is time. In the article, the author says, "diffusion studies seek to classify acceptors in terms of the timing of their acceptance of an item." (Katz, 240) We live in a technological age where the use of social media is prevalent. Through our use of the adoption process and timing does social media become a need and not just an accessory.