Diffusion Theroy

  

    The diffusion theory is a theory made in an attempt to explain the rise and spread of new Inventions and ideas. From how the product was looked at on its debut all the way to current day looking at if it’s become a normal staple of life, something that isn’t uncommon to see from time to time, or if it just flat out was rejected.

               This idea was first looked into in the 19th century by multiple respected people such as the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde, Then a Frederick Ratzel a German Anthropologist, and finally by Leo Frobenius a Austrian Geographer. In between the times of 1920 and 1930 hybrid crop seeds have begun to spread and researchers went out to Iowa to see how farmers have adopted the seeds themselves, but also the new tools and cultivation methods that came with this new wave of agriculture, specifically with corn. After much more investigations like this there were five elements of diffusion that were recognized.

               Firstly, it’s the innovation. All products and theories came from the same point. One person saw something they looked into it and from there they had an idea. This idea is the birth of the product in question making this as the start of diffusion. The next element is the adopters. The adopters are the pioneers in this scenario. They are the first people to try out the new product. For example, when apple releases a new phone those people that line up in front of the store in the line that circles two or three blocks, those were the pioneers. 

 

 

Another example could be in the fashion industry when young people started to wear rip jeans. Growing up my grandmother and parents raised me with the idea that having holes or tears in your cloths was a sign of not necessarily poverty but more along the lines of not having enough money to the extent that you have to wear “bad cloths”. However, once I had entered high school there was a very clear change. Or even a disconnect between my generation that I went to school with and the generations of our parents and grandparents. At first it was the girls’ wearing jeans that had rips that would show some of their thighs. 


Then the boys were wearing jeans with rips that were just above the knee.

 It wasn’t long after that when the one or two popular kids started to wear them that everyone started to join this movement. And that leads to the next element of diffusion called the Communication channels. These channels were usually not just the major companies, but they could just be as small as people passing the word through the street. Its just like with the rips in jeans. A few kids started to go to school with them and because people saw them and associated them with the popular kids and their “status” Everyone started to follow the trend. But of course, this is not capable without time. Time is another element to diffusion. In order for people to see those popular kids with the rips, or that guy at your job with the new iPhone, or that stranger that’s raven about how his life has changed because he started to follow some new trending lifestyle. In order for this news to spread These products require the passage of time. It takes time for words to spread, and for people to notice or pick up on changes around them. So, time is one of the more impactful elements in this theory. Lastly, we have social systems. The social system can be considered as when people that have a high status or a company that is well known. And the reputation of that company or person have an impact on how everyone else looks at a product. As I said earlier, once the popular kids started to wear jeans with rips, that’s when everyone else started to see the style in a more positive light. Now granted this element can be what either makes or breaks the product. Like I said my grandmother to this day still hates to see either me or my brother wearing cloths that have rips. However, because other parents have kids also following this trend and they are in contact with my own parents they began to see the appeal of the style because an outside force. In this case it was the acceptance of other parents of the trend, that impacted the views of my parents. The same can be said when apple doesn’t have a great launch for their new phone because people begin to recognize that they don’t want to pay a thousand dollars for their phone to have an extra camera on it.


 

               In conclusion, this theory can truly be applied to a vast majority of situations in our daily lives. If we were to just look at the products that we own and think about how it was that we decided to purchase this product or why we decided to follow this new health lifestyle. This theory can be applied, and it can give us a better understanding of not only the mind state of our society but also, we get a look at our own thought processes and how they can be influenced without us really noticing.

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