The Impact of Social Media in US Elections.6 - Research Paper Example

Being a social network, application of social media has spread with a high momentum because of social interconnectivity that links friends and relatives. The Diffusion of innovation theory explains the trend that the social media has adopted and offers a basis for forecasting its future orientation. According to the theory, invention gains popularity and commands the society’s attention until a time when such attention fades. Rogers, the theory’s developer, proposed four stages that are expected of the social media, and its effects on US elections, in the future. The first stage of the model involves adoption by a small section of the society, innovators, who are willing to venture the innovation immediately after its development. The population section embraces possible risks that may discourage others. Following the innovators’ initiative is the adoption of a technology by early adopters whose population is higher than that of innovators. The population segment identifies leaders who do not need persuasion into a technology’s application and are flexible to implementing innovations. A larger percentage of the population into an innovation is the early majority who relies on evidence of the technology’s effects before adoption and an approximately equivalent proportion, the late majority, follows them. ...