Diffusions of Innovations

 Diffusion of innovations was a theory that was developed by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations published in 1962. This theory attempts to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. He explains his theory through five main elements, the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system. Rogers explains that the innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain, or in other words, stick within society and have continuous growth in usage. 

One of the biggest innovations within the past few years has been TikTok, as well as all social media. TikTok was created in 2018, previously known as Musical.ly. The app was purchased for a whopping $1 billion by a Chinese company called ByteDance, and transformed into the new app, with some of the same features. 

With a Chinese company having such a large impact on most of the world, the United States specifically, has raised many security questions. Although the app has taken the world by storm, growing mostly within the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous states and countries have already banned this app since it partakes in data mining.

The reason that this innovation has taken the world by storm within the past three years, is due to the lockdown. Over 100 million users interacted with the app during the pandemic. With people being stuck at home, there weren't a lot of things to do, but scroll on social media, which was one of the only ways to continue to stay connected with friends. 

What makes this app grab your attention so well, is the For-You feature. "This is where the algorithm puts content in front of users, anticipating what they will enjoy based on content they have already engaged with. It's also where it shows content it thinks could go viral," says BBC. 

Many people have jumped on the train of the 15-second videos, where they can watch things from dancing videos, day-in-my-life, sports highlights, all the way to trick shot videos. The creative freedom is what keeps users hooked. 

As a user of this app, I enjoy the videos that the algorithm puts together for me, but at the same time, it creeps me out how I could be seeing the same video as my roommate because we just had a conversation about it. The amount of information the app gathers is enough to tailor your feed to exactly what you like. This can pose a threat to your identity as well as national security since it learns so much about its users. 

The world of technology is dangerous. It comes across as innocent, innovative, and up incoming, but in reality, is the convenience of the app really worth your personal privacy and security?