Diffusion of Innovation Post

“Traditions of Research on the Diffusion of Innovation” was written in 1963 by Elihu Katz, Herbert Hamilton, and Martin Levin. The diffusion of innovation is how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread between cultures. The process of diffusion is viewed through a sociological point of view, an anthropological point of view, a rural sociology point of view, and through mass communications. This paper focuses on the definition of diffusion of innovation through the eyes of a sociologist. The ways innovation can reach different cultures is through 1) acceptance 2) time 3) item 4) adopting units 5) channels of communication, 6) social structure and 7) culture. Each of these are important to the success of innovation, and how technology is important to our daily lives.

Acceptance is how people start to recognize innovation. Whether it’s a radio or cell phone, people need to know what is out there and how it can affect their lifestyle. Acceptance and time are similar to each other because they are both hard to study. Let’s take the iPhone for example. No one really remembers when having an iPhone was acceptable and how long it took for the item to become popular; it just happened all of the sudden. Since some people don’t have a definite answer on why they accepted the iPhone, or any smart phone of that matter, into society, acceptance is hard to research. The authors say that “where information on time is available, date of ‘first use’  is frequently employed as the measure of acceptance” (Katz, et al., 240). The problem with this is that just because someone accepts it at a certain time, doesn’t mean that is the time when the rest of society accepted it. For example, my mom got her first iPhone 4 when the iPhone 5 was coming out. At that point, the rest of society accepted iPhones, she just accepted hers at a later date. She integrated to the iPhone life because everyone else in the family had one, and while we were all talking about them and the updates and iMessage, she would be sitting there with an EnV 2 not knowing what to talk about. 

The specific item that is trying to become a part of culture is also important to innovation. Back in the 30s, a radio was considered a big deal. Today, if a company wanted to release a radio, people wouldn’t accept it as much because now we can get the radio anytime, anywhere on our phones. How do we distinguish what an item is today, though? Back then there were radios, televisions, phones, and cameras. Now, all of those things can fit into our phones. Is an item an app or is it the thing you play the app on? If it is considered an app, how can we measure the popularity of an app? By downloads? Probably not. The popularity of apps fluctuate all the time. Angry birds was really big back in 2008 and 2009, recently, they just came out with an Angry Birds 2. I don’t know anyone who downloaded the game, but that doesn’t mean it’s not popular. 

For an item to become popular, it has to have the right channels of communication. We wouldn’t see an iPhone commercial on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel, and we wouldn't see a toy commercial on CNN. The companies have to have a target audience to market to. These people who see it become the adopters of the innovation, and they found the innovation through these channels of communication. If the channels of communication are effective, there will be a greater chance of people adopting the product. Channels of communication used to be print advertisements, TV, and radio. Today, we have all of those things, plus the digital ads that are produced by cookies on the internet, and the ads that are within our apps. Like the other factors, how do we measure this? Click on the ads? If someone clicks the ad, that doesn’t mean the product has been successfully sold. Since technology is always changing, it is hard to measure how a product spreads and becomes popular. You’d think that because we have advanced technology, it would be easy to get the facts, but since this is abstract information, it cannot easily be done. 

Digital Media and Society (Blog Response 1)

Digital media has become a crucial tool in our society. Today, mostly every thing we do involves digital media. A lot of people access digital media, whether it is on a computer or on a smartphone. To me, digital media are tools that we can engage in conversation on, tools we can use that connects us to the Internet at anywhere, at any time. 

The American culture is shaped by digital tools. Postman says that “tools become the culture”, and I agree with this because the majority of people have smartphones, and a lot of people are on social media. I can’t watch TV without the channel trying to get me involved with some kind of discussion. As I am writing this, there is a show on the History Channel, and there is a hashtag in the bottom right corner. Why do they want me to engage so much? Can’t I just watch the TV program in peace? Postman says that “the main characteristic of all tool-using cultures is that their tools were largely invented to do two things: to solve specific and urgent problems of physical life” (Postman, 23). Do digital media solve these problems?  Some would argue “yes”, and others would differ.

Smart phones are a good example of digital media that people use to interact with other people. Because there is a new platform for human interaction, society is changing. Although the smartphone itself is not digital media, the applications ran on the phone are digital media. We can access websites, social media sites, video, and audio all on a smart phone. Smart phones have also changed society today by making everything faster. We can do everything from getting answers to a question, to ordering a Chipotle order so we don’t have to stand in line, almost instantly. Because we can do these things relatively fast, the impact of this technology will affect consumers. This doesn’t always have a positive impact. Because we can Google information so easily, it is not necessary for us to retain the info we read because we can always refer back to it. Since we are getting used to the speed of things, people have the potential to have little patience for things that take time. 

Article on smartphone use and society