Diffusion of Innovation and TikTok

 Tiktok's rise to popularity seemed abrupt and almost out of nowhere. However, it did follow the path predicted for it in the 1960s, long before its creation, by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations. His theory for innovations explains the how and why new ideas and technologies spread through cultures so quickly. 

TikTok started off as a niche platform called Musical.ly that was widely popular among young kids, teens, and some young adults. People in the millennial and early Gen-Z generations have long been fascinated with lip-syncing and short clip creation platforms. Before TikTok, it was musically, before musical.ly, it was vine, and even before vine, it was DubSmash. People constantly tried to innovate these platforms into a new entity until they couldn't anymore and now society itself innovates their uses of TikTok. What started as a Lip Syncing, Dancing, short skit app, now is many people's primary source of news and entertainment.

As the app evolved, its short-form, algorithm-driven content quickly attracted the early majority, who were drawn in by viral dances, comedy, and the allure of quickly going viral off of the “For You Page”. Eventually, the late majority joined in the fame to either connect, stay relative, or watch what younger generations engaged in. This late majority included parents, teachers, and even large corporations and businesses. Still, there were some "laggards" or those who intentionally decide not to adopt platforms like TikTok entirely. They fear for privacy concerns, content addiction, or even just because of general distaste for social media culture.

TikTok can connect people and cultures very quickly in a way that anyone can go viral. But, like anything else, it has its downsides. It has a particularly addictive design created to draw people, especially younger people in. It also can spread misinformation just as quickly as true information, and has mental health effects like other social media platforms.  It also has affected the attention span of younger generations as now they have gotten much shorter. Roger's theory doesn't tell use what to adopt, rather it tells us how and why society does. Adoption isn't just about the innovation which makes this theory so deeply rooted in the current culture of the world today. It doesn't just explain any trend, but it explains how humans work and grow together and allows us to understand ourselves.