Diffusion of Innovations

 The diffusion of innovations theory tries to explain why some people are early adopters of some innovations. There are many reasons for this and one is simply that others adapt with change while others do not. Many people in society do not like major changes at first until someone accepts the change. This applies to technology and with all the social media sites that have come along with this. When the Mac computer was first invented by Steve Jobs, his colleague Steve Wozniak, believed that no one would want to buy a computer. Steve Jobs responded and asked how someone could know what they want if they have never seen it. This was true with Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg initially did not succeed with Facebook and had many chat systems and music players that ultimately did not do well. I think the reason some people don’t buy into technology is that they are stuck in their old way of doing things. They think technology is too complicated and they do not have the desire to learn how to use it. This is especially true with my parents and they both grew up in the 1960s. Many people are not trusting of social media companies as Facebook owns all of social media basically. Facebook has had many problems with leaking personal information to other third party companies, which then determine how they advertise to you on their platform. I think being on social media is beneficial because that is how my generation communicates now. While I do not think it’s the best way to communicate, that's how all my friends and I communicate. I think the positive outweighs the negative in my opinion with social media because there are privacy issues. Social media gives you a way to connect with people you may have never known otherwise. I think the way you do a cost benefit analysis, is you think about what is important to you. If you really care about connecting with other people online and you want to use it, then by all means. However if you are concerned about not using because of privacy reasons, then I would not advise using it.