Diffusion of innovations is a theory that tries to explain the “process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system.” It was introduced by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations, which was first published in 1962. Rogers wrote that there are five main elements that affect the spread of a new idea.
Innovators: A person who introduces new methods, ideas, or products.
Early adopters: The people who are first to adopt to a new innovation.
Early majority: The first segment of a population to adopt to a new innovation.
Late majority: People who are doubtful about change and will only adopt to an innovation if the majority of a population has tried it.
Laggards: The people who are last to adopt to a new product or service.
We can see this process through the creation and adoption of Instagram. Instagram is a social media app that was created by Kevin Systrom and launched in October 2010. Systrom’s first app was called Burbn and was aimed at whiskey and bourbon enthusiasts. Users could share photos, check in and post their plans. Eventually, he decided to focus on photo sharing and commenting, and Instagram (combining the words “instant” and “telegram”) was born.
Early adopters signed on quickly. In its first week, Instagram gained 100,000 users. The newest version of the iPhone, including a better camera, had just been released several months earlier, and users were eager to try it out and post their photos. Instagram's filters offered an easy way to make their photos, and themselves, better.
The early majority of users was significantly increased when the app was launched for Android in 2012. In April 2012, more than one million users downloaded Instagram in one day, on top of the existing 27 million users. Features such as messaging, liking, commenting, and “stories” (photos and videos posted in a separate feed in the app that are only live for 24 hours) attracted the late majority, allowing them to connect with friends, family, and influencers. In 2018, only YouTube was downloaded more from the Apple app store than Instagram.
As of April 2022, there were at least 1.4 billion Instagram users across the world. However, there are still some laggards who still haven’t bought into the hype. Older people who are not technically literate, or those who already spend their time on other apps, seem to be the last holdouts.
While Instagram is certainly entertaining, allowing me to keep up with friends and pop culture, I think the negatives outweigh the positives. Users can have a “fear of missing out,” and spend too much time on the app instead of connecting with people in person, working, studying, or even sleeping. Influencers can also feel a great deal of pressure to constantly post content for their readers, sometimes sacrificing quality. Even everyday users feel pressure to "make their lives more worthy of posting about." People feel the need to use filters to alter their appearance, to showcase their aesthetically pleasing homes, or choose their vacation destination based on potential photo opportunities. I am making a conscious effort to try and limit my time on the app each day.
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