Blog #9: Roger's Diffusion of Innovations Theory on Email

 

Roger's Diffusion of Innovations is a theory used to help us understand how and why new technologies are increasing or decreasing in popularity and use. This theory helps us look into the spread of technology and its affects on us. Using Roger's Diffusion of Innovations theory we see more insight into the use of email. Some don't think email is that popular anymore, but using this theory we get a better view on how email is still one of the most used platforms. In a report done in 2021, we see that there are still over 4 billion active users on email. In this article we see that email has stayed consistent in its growth. In 2020 it had a 4.4% growth, 2021 a 4.3% growth, and in 2022 it has had a 4.3% growth so far. Email is expected in 2023 to have 4.3 billion active users, as in 2019 over half of the world was already using email. Applying Roger'd Diffusion of Innovations theory we see that email continues to grow slowly, as it continues to consistently be used by over half the world still today. 

Roger's Diffusion of Innovations theory has us look into also why a platform such as email is still popular today. Looking at an article on this, we see that email is still used widely around due to first, habit. Email has been around for decades, and people have been used to using email to communicate. Many new platforms like instagram, messenger, iMessage, are still fairly new. Second, is collaboration. To collaborate for either work or business people send emails to collaborate because you send documents, links, and attachments. Third, email has proven to be reliable. Again, email has been around for decades and has proven to be an affective way to communicate. The last 3 reasons email is still popular is due to it being accessible, culturally ingrained, and for its privacy and security. 

Finally, email is also being used by all age ranges. In 2019 it was said that 90% of 15-24 year olds use it, 93.6% of 25-44 year olds use. it, 90.1% of 45-64 year olds use it, and 84.1% of 65 and older use it. Thus, based on these statistics, I believe email will continue to grow and be constantly used across the world. Because it has been here for so long before, and when it first came out we had no other way of electronically communicating, I believe email has become a necessity for us. We are use to always having it since it first came to be in the 1960s. In business, sports, school, careers, government, we depend on email to share ideas, deals, highlights, documents, attachments, bills, news, and so much more. Thus, email is a constant shared necessity that will continue to thrive.