Diffusion Theory

    Diffusion theory can be applied to every invention ever created in the history of mankind. Let's use YouTube as an example here. YouTube started as a simple video sharing website. The early adopters used it as a platform for sharing short videos with the intent to inform or entertain. As the website grew and popularity increased, the early majority came. This wave expanded upon the previous version of the platform and brought with them new forms of video and additional types of content. The late majority is made up of people who have decided that it is finally time to see what the fuss is about and spend time looking up videos. In this case, it is likely older people who decided to use YouTube to look up how to do something, like fix their plumbing or to teach themselves how to use a new product.

    The negative consequences, depending on how you want to look at it, are that YouTube has become invaluable in pushing forward advertisements and are now under the umbrella of the evil Google. This means that Google is able to use analytics on anything you look up, watch, or browse in YouTube, and then sell this data to whatever company they desire. They can also use this information for targeted advertising. The positives give people a platform to potentially make a living, find entertainment, learn a new skill, or any number of other things. YouTube has many positive aspects to it, however the question is, are you willing to give google even more information about yourself than you already do?

    Walking the line between cost and benefit is very difficult in an age that everything revolves around information and what companies can learn about you to sell. The consumer should be making efforts to educate themselves about what exactly they are agreeing to when they make use of a product or agree to a privacy policy/user-data agreement.