Blog 07: Diffusion of Innovations

 Blog 07: Diffusion of Innovations

Communication technology is constantly changing and growing in new and innovative ways. The big question that is asked about new technology is ‘how, why and what rates will this technology spread at?’ I will be answering that question today with the Diffusion of Innovations theory by Everett Rogers. 

 

As I mentioned Diffusion if Innovations theory seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. For a better understanding, Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. There are five main elements that influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time and a social system. 

 

Now I will be looking at the innovation of Ring Cameras and how, why and at what rate this technology spread. Ring was developed in 2014 and has progressively grown since. According to ring.com, “Ring Protect is a comprehensive service that activates video recording, saving, and sharing for you security cameras.” 

 

Now that we have a little background information on Ring cameras, I want to dive into the spread of the Ring technology. 

 

How has Ring technology spread across the world? The biggest contributor to the spread of Ring, is Ring have Amazon as their parent company. This means, Amazon technically owns Ring, and they have effective ways of advertising to increase the spread. Amazon began showing ads on their website and still is continuing to show ads, which increases the amount of people buying therefore, increasing the word-of-mouth advertising from the consumers. 

 

Why did Ring technology become popular and spread? The reason Ring became so popular is because of the comfort it provides for the consumer. When Ring initially came out, people began taking their recordings off the Ring camera and posting them to social media to show how dangerous it can be without security cameras. 

 

At what rate did Ring cameras spread? According to the graph below, the sales in security cameras has continued to grow each year. These cameras have been at a relatively constant purchase rate, growing with the company. This is good because the company continues to create new products that still impress their consumers but differentiates for their other products. 

 

Overall, Ring cameras has had a positive impact on society however, there are negative to follow. The major issue with Ring cameras is that people are being recorded without their consent or knowledge and that has caused major dispute over the years. Since the majority of these cameras are placed on privately owned property, the consent it not need due to the fact of the person coming onto private property without invitation. 

 

Ring cameras have bettered out society with the access to truthful evidence from the recordings as well as stopping people from doing illegal activities because of the mass amount of people who record outside their home, gathering more evidence.