Blog Post #7

     An app called TikTok is a new innovation that has been on the rise for the last 5 years. TikTok is an app where users can post 15-2 minute long videos of them doing anything from cooking to dancing to life advice. Diffusion Theory is a theory that explains why how, and what rates new types of technology are spread. This theory was published by Everett Rogers in 1962. TikTok follows this diffusion theory, a chart that starts with pioneers who originally had the idea. Then moves to early adaptors, which are people who see it can be something and take it above its original idea and purpose. Next is the early majority, when most people start to use and get ideas when using it. After the early majority is late majority. These are people who realize if you're not on it you have to be by now because its all people talk about. Last is the Laggards which are people who refuse to get it but eventually do after years or months. 

    TikTok follows this Diffusion theory very well. TikTok started in 2018/2019 and wasn't very popular. It was just coming together as an app, and the majority of the people who used it were from the app Musically which got taken down and renamed and branded as TikTok. This was after the crash of Musically. This is in the Pioneers phase, where the app is getting its title and forming what it is at this point, TikTok started off as almost a recreation of Vine which is when it started to pick up. It began to pick up when early adapters began to get the app. I was part of this group of early adopters. TikTok was a funny app used to get away from school work mess around with friends and make videos. For a few years, people were very skeptical if they wanted to download t TikTok or not but it took off the ground fast after this and the majority of people from ages 14-20 had the app and made videos and watched other people's videos. After this point, I believe TikTok has just finished and reached its early majority point. I feel people of all ages now use TikTok and that it is used for more than funny videos with friends. There are thousands and thousands of videos posted about anything you can think of. There still is a late majority that just got the app because everyone is on it, and there still are laggards that do not have the app because of its negatives or just the fact that they aren't up to speed and see why they need it. 

    Although  Tiktok is slowly taking over the world from all aspects, the app has some negative aspects. The app can be seen as addicting and ruining people's focus and patience. Since the videos are so short, studies are starting to be done so that fewer people can sit through a TV show or movie or anything longer than 30 seconds to 2 minutes because of this app. This has caused a negative perception of the app, and rumors of it being taken down have gone around a few times, but nothing has happened. The app TikTok continues to grow every day with more users and more videos posted.