Everrett Rodgers created the idea of "Diffusion of Innovators." This is an adoption process of new technology that is made up of five elements: Innovators, Early adopters, Early majority, Late majority, and Laggards. The critical mass is the point that an innovation eventually hits. Critical mass is defined as when the innovation idea has the highest amount of adopters. It is said by management consultants that the critical mass is usually found between the early adopters and early majority. In order for an innovation to survive, it has to be widely adopted. People cling onto innovations that share: commonalities with the pre-existing system, if there is an advantage to having this innovation, if it's not too difficult to figure out, its testability, the potential of reinvention, and the known effects. Others are late adopters. These people don't see these aspects in the innovation. Usually they are older people who have lived so many years without this technology rather than young adults who are majority of the early adopters.
The smartphone is a great example for the Diffusion of Innovators. This changed the lives of the entire world. People saw the advantage in having this technology because they could send messages or call their acquaintances within seconds, and search things up on the internet. It was so amazing because there was finally one piece of technology that had a bunch of resources and ways to communicate all in just one small device. It wasn't long before this technology skyrocketed. However, just like in all other innovations, there are late adopters and laggards too. Why would some not hop on this technology? Why would some not even bother to have one at all if it was this convenient? Well, to bring back my other point, many people have lived years and years without it so they can't help but push it off because they were doing just fine all these years without it. Another reason is that they may have felt like this technology was too difficult to figure out. Why spend time trying to figure out this technology when you are doing just fine without it and have all the same resources, just In a couple different innovations? Another reason may be because they are too expensive and a waste of money. Lastly, the battery life only seemed to last an hour which was pretty short especially if you compare it to our screen time on our phones today.
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