Diffusion Theory

    Many different ideas have gone through the process of Diffusion Theory. Diffusion Theory explains how an idea will gain momentum and spread through a specific population.  

    There are five major established adopted categories within this theory. They are the Pioneers, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Adopters, and Laggards. However, because this diagram can not hit zero, there is one more category called Long Tail. An example of this would be YouTube. 

    YouTube was an idea created by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley in 2005. During this time YouTube had just gotten registration for its trademark, logo, and domain. At this point, only a certain number of people could see the site. Later on in that same year, more people were able to access it through its beta state. Once it was launched out of the beta stage more people were able to access it however you can not access something that you do not exist. The next year,  YouTube would be acquired by Google. This would give YouTube a much bigger platform to be on and would be much easier to find. 

    I would say that YouTube had a rather quick incline when it came to population. However, something that is not on the chart above is the popularity over time. As of right now(2023), about 52% of people worldwide access YouTube at least once a month. For a platform staying relevant is very important because when you become irrelevant it becomes a major issue for your income. Many inventions and social media platforms tend to either die out or not make it past the early majority stage. The fact that YouTube has managed to be here for almost twenty years and is still commonly used today is impressive.

    Even though YouTube has been around for so long it does not mean that it is perfect. There are some negatives to YouTube being the powerful site it is. YouTube can have misleading information as well as the ability to stop productivity. 

    Since YouTube is accessible to everyone and everyone can post whatever they like under the guidelines, it is easy to see and put up fake information to manipulate others. YouTube also uses an algorithm that keeps up with your interest and the videos you watch/like. This will suck you in, making you watch more leading to you not doing anything else. 

    Overall, many different types of ideas and inventions go through the Diffusion Theory of Innovation. YouTube happens to be one of the more successful ones in this scenario.