Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion of Innovations theory is a significant framework; it explains how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. 1962, Everett Rodgers familiarized himself with the theory in his book Diffusion of Innovations. In the book, Rodgers argued that diffusion is the process by which a change is communicated through specific channels over time with participants in a social system. The start of the diffusion of innovations theory is varied and spans multiple disciplines. According to Rodgers, five main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system. Also, one main thing must happen for the idea to be successful: the idea must be widely adopted. While there is a rise in adoption, there is a point where the idea reaches something called "critical mass."  Critical mass is a sufficient number of adoptions for a new idea in a social system, and the adoption rate becomes self-sustaining and forms more growth.  In 1989, consultants at Regis McKenna Inc. theorized that the point lies in the boundary between early adopters and the early majority. There are five categories of adopters: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Finally, there is a specific criterion for adopter categories: innovativeness, which means the degree to which a person adopts a new idea. 

Snapchat was launched on July 8th, 2011. The app was created by Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy. Since that day, Snapchat's popularity has grown and has gained generations. Snapchat is so popular because it offers abilities other social media platforms do not. It is a form of communication for teens and young adults because you can text and call on it. You can do those things on Instagram, but communicating over Snapchat is more casual as if you were just texting someone. Snapchat caught on and spread because it was a way to communicate with people who have relationships with their friends, family, and romantic relationships. This app was also popular because everyone had the option to add silly filters, and while that is popular on other apps now, when the app first came out, it was not an option. Every few years, Snapchat adds new abilities. In 2013, the app added the ability to make a story by adding photos or videos you want your friends to see. Shortly after, they added another section where people could post videos for anyone to see, not just their friends. To this day, Snapchat continues to add abilities that are not options on other apps and has added premium additions. So many people became early adopters of Snapchat because once a group of people have it and have talked about it, more people will download the app, and downloads will continue to happen, hence why it became more popular as people heard about it. More recent generations were more late adopters mainly because statistics and reports showed when children should be allowed to use social media. Many social media platforms created a age requirement, which is the age of 13 for Snapchat.  Also, many users today simply do not want the app because they did not understand the point initially, and some today who would typically have it still do not because they feel it is pointless. Many people have not become Snapchat users because they do not want to put themselves out on social media at all, so they are not on any social media platforms. Some feel that social media is not worth it, and some worry about having photos of themselves, family, and friends on the platforms because anyone can find them or pretend to know them, so everyone needs to be careful when using the apps. 

While Snapchat, in the grand scheme of things, seems like a positive idea and platform, as do other social media, they all have negative aspects that no one really talks about. One of the most significant negatives to Snapchat and social media as a whole is cyberbullying, which has been such a terrible part of these platforms for so long and just continues to get worse. Cyberbullying not only affects the person mentally but also affects them physically. This brings up the next issue with social media and Snapchat, which is that more teen girls and teen boys compare themselves to others they see online, thinking that they have to be like them and be "perfect," which also affects them mentally and physically. Finally, a significant negative to Snapchat is that you get notifications for everything: when someone sends you a snap, when an influencer posts on their public story, and finally, when someone is typing in chat to you and when they send a chat to you, which becomes a major distraction for everyone. When I do homework, I turn on Do Not Disturb because Snapchat will blow up my phone, taking me away from what is essential. After researching Snapchat and social media, I found that the positive outcomes do not outweigh the negatives. There are far more negatives to Snapchat and social media than positives. There have been many times that not only me but many others have thought about deleting apps due to the negatives that are not needed in our everyday lives, but it is the thought of being left out that no one actually ends up deleting the app. Snapchat has its premium option, which costs $3.99 per month or $22.99 for the year. While it offers many benefits to me, it is not necessarily worth the money because it does not provide anything that I and many others feel is necessary to have added on. I have realized that more people do not have Snapchat than those who do. 

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/02/21/why-snapchat-is-so-successful-with-younger-users-and-what-facebook-and-instagram-can-learn/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/tech/snapchat-user-growth/index.html