Blog #9: Diffusion Theory

     Instagram is one of the world's largest social media platforms. It was launched in 2010, and is now owned by Facebook. The platform was originally created by Kevin Systrom. He created Instagram while he attended Stanford University because of his love for taking and looking at photography. By 2018, after only 8 years of being available to the public, Instagram was reported to be worth over $100 million, and have over 500 million daily users. This growth is tremendous, and it is probably easier to use the Diffusion of Innovation Theory in order to accurately show Instagram's growth and development throughout the years.

    The first stage of the Innovation Model is the innovators stage. This stage makes up 2.5% of the total users of the platform. These are the people who first discovered Instagram before anyone else has. They may tell their friends about the platform, but their friends may not listen or care to download Instagram. The innovators are way ahead of the times, and will probably use the platform for years to come. For Instagram, this is probably young people, from the ages of 13-16 years old.

    The second stage of the Innovation Model is the early adopters stage. This makes up 13.5% of Instagram's users, and they more than likely heard about the platform from the people who were innovators. They still are one of the first people to use the platform, but it is less of a "new" thing.

    The third stage is the early majority, which is 34% of Instagram's makeup. This is when the platform reaches its peak of users, and it is no longer really a new platform, but for people that weren't a part of the first two stages, Instagram is very new and exciting. At this stage, everyone is talking about Instagram, and if you don't have it downloaded by this stage, you'll be considered to be behind on the times. Most users fall into this stage of the Innovation Model.

    The late majority is the next stage, and it is another 34% of Instagram's user makeup. These users are considered to be late on the trend, and at this stage the buzz of excitement revolving around the platform is over. These users are behind on how to use the technology, and for Instagram is usually men and women in the 30 to 50 age range. This is often the parents of kids in the early adopters or early majority stage of the Innovation Model. 

    The last stage of the Innovation Model is the laggards. These are people who still have not downloaded or created an Instagram account. More than likely, this stage is made up of grandparents, or adults over 60 years old. They likely aren't on any social media platform, and don't know how to work a lot of Internet functions that most younger people find very simple. 

    By using the Diffusion of Innovation Model, it makes analyzing the rapid growth of Instagram a little bit easier to absorb. This theory is used a lot to make complex growth more easily analyzed.