The first technology that comes to mind when considering innovations that have affected my life, as well as the lives of many others, is the smartphone. When smartphones were first growing in use, they still were not the overwhelmingly more popular form of cell phone that they are now. This could be due to smartphones not being nearly as powerful as they are now, not having the plethora of apps that are available now, and being much more expensive alternatives to other cell phones.

In those early years of smartphones as a technology, I was young enough to not need much more from a phone than texting and phone calling and I couldn’t afford a smartphone on my own. I knew what smartphones were capable of, but I did not see a reason for myself to need one. For several more years, I held off on getting a smartphone for these reasons until my dad gave me his old phone. By that time, I had more of a use for a smartphone, and they had become much more common, with other phones now rarely being used. Because I waited so long to get a smartphone, I would consider myself in the Late Majority adopter category. I wouldn’t consider myself a laggard because I always planned on eventually getting a smartphone and there were still people who hadn’t got smartphones after I did. I would also consider myself in the confirmation stage of adoption because I love my smartphone and consider it a crucial tool in my everyday life.

There are some innovations where I fell in a different adopter category. One is Youtube. I had always heard of Youtube but, as with smart phones, I was too young to have a need to use Youtube or even understand exactly what it was. Eventually, sometime between 2008-2010, I happened to watch a Youtube video through a link. After using the Youtube search bar for the first time, I was hooked. Youtube then became a staple of my life and it has remained as such. Because of this, I am in the confirmation stage of adoption. I would consider myself part of the early majority, but I could instead be part of the late majority. I say this because Youtube was well known at the time, but its potential was not fully realized and many people had not used it at all.