Week 12: Why Snapchat Caught On So Quick

This week, let's start with what Wikipedia.org describes as the last wave of people to pick up an innovation, "laggards". This made me laugh, and then immediately think of my mom (sorry mom).

So why did Snapchat catch on so quick, in comparison to other older innovations? My theory, and I think that this could be applied to many of the other new innovations, is the fact that these innovations were able to be adopted by younger generations, and at the time, the older generations were unaware of what they were. I remember downloading snapchat on my i-pad because my parents said I was too young to have a phone or Facebook. It was a way for my friends and I to communicate quickly instead of EMAILING or being on a texting app. That's right, my friends and I email IM-ed. My theory, is that the early adapters are almost always primarily younger people, the same way tiktok and YouTube took off. Snapchat filled a need, that texting could not. Communicating while being able to see someone's facial expressions.

The downside to all of this, is the fact that our young generations are easily addicted and affected by these applications, and although it brings our world closer together, I think we have yet to see all of the negative effects of growing up with technology.


Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations
https://platformmagazine.org/2015/02/13/the-evolution-of-snapchat/