Instagram Through the Diffusion Theory

Instagram is a word that all of us know, but eleven years ago this wasn’t the case.  The rise of Instagram has been meteoric, and because it is still a huge part of modern society its path on the curve of Diffusion Theory isn’t done yet.  That being said, we can look at how it got to where we are today.

In 2009, a Stanford graduate named Kevin Systrom was working on a web app called Burbn while employed at Nextstop.  Burbn was an app where people could post their plans to drink as well as their drinks of choice, and in 2010 it transitioned to a mobile-photo sharing app.  In the first day of the launch, Instagram amassed 25,000 users and they reached 1 million within two months.  In 2012, Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock, and since then Instagram has only become more popular.

Instagram caught on and spread because it provided a new way for people to connect with their friends, through photos.  If there’s one thing that most people love, it’s sharing their cool pictures with their friends.  This is why there were so many early adopters.  Once celebrities began endorsing and using the app, it spread even faster, and the early majority began.  Some people are late adopters now, because they don’t think they need to use another form of social media. Most of these people are in the 35+ age range, and primarily use Facebook as their social media.  People are also hesitant to adopt this technology because they don’t want people to know what’s going on in their lives.

My Use of Technology

Technology, as I have come to learn throughout life and particularly throughout COM 1450, is a double edged sword.  While the benefits of technology are so abundant, there are also aspects of technology that are downright frightening.  Whether we realize it or not, each and every one of us has a relationship with technology.  It’s important to keep that relationship healthy, because if not, it can transform you into a person that you might not like.

I believe that my relationship with technology is both healthy and unhealthy at times, but in the long run is a healthy one.  I will willingly admit, I am not a poster child for healthy amounts of screen time.  Whether it be streaming my favorite television shows on my phone, scrolling through social media, or playing video games for hours on end on my Xbox, I am as guilty as anyone of being glued to a screen.  However, I also have many productive reasons that I use technology.

I use technology for a variety of purposes, and while entertainment is a large one, there are also more practical purposes.  One of these is promoting myself professionally.  As I have begun to jumpstart my career as a play-by-play broadcaster, having social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, and especially Linkedin, have made it very easy to put reels or clips of my work out on the internet for everyone to see.  For the field of sports media, it is said so often that it isn’t what you know that matters the most, but who you know.  In light of this, I have made sure that my digital footprint or presence is as big as it could possibly be so that more eyes are turned my way.

Screenshot from a hockey game between ECU-Radford that I broadcast

Technology has also helped me keep in touch with my friends from before college.  My Xbox may be nothing but a gaming console, but being able to play those games with my best friends from high school has helped us keep our friendships strong.  An app called Discord is another great way to help us keep in touch, as it’s a free way for all of us to be able to talk audibly to one another.  Cell phones and social media are great to keep in touch, but being able to talk to everyone and hear all of their voices is simply different than just reading text messages.

I think that technology does make me smarter, because it is easier than ever to get information.  I can stay up to date on current events with a few keystrokes, and get that information from a variety of sources.  In today’s day and age, news via modern technology is crucial because like many others, I can’t afford to take time out of my day to go and buy a newspaper then read the whole thing.  Digital news is also very helpful because you can read various opinions very quickly.  If I’m opposed to buying just one newspaper, I’m even more opposed to buying multiple newspapers and reading them all just so that I can take in a variety of opinions.

All told, I believe that I am using technology to my advantage. I think that the benefits that technology provides to my endeavors in both professional and casual communication outweigh the detrimental aspects of modern technology, and that as technology continues to evolve, so will my use of it.