Blog #8 - Diffusion of Innovations: TikTok

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One very unique example of a recent innovation that I think is especially interesting when viewed through the lens of the Diffusion Theory is TikTok. The app has been around for around 5 years at this point, but has only grabbed ahold of society in the way that it has in the past year or so. Why is that? When TikTok first came out, it was a rebrand of the Musical.ly app. The majority of society saw this app, and subsequently TikTok, as a place where cringeworthy content is created, and were hesitant to be a part of that. Over time, however, it became more and more popular for typical consumers. The graph below shows a portion of that growth, and it’s apparent that it took off out of nowhere. Growth was initially pretty steady until around early 2018. As the content created on TikTok became more “normal”, more and more people started to accept it. I know I personally downloaded it in early 2020 pretty reluctantly, after being nagged by my friends. I still have friends who don’t use it, but more and more are slowly giving in and downloading it. Initially I think the reluctance was due to the sort of content that the app was known for, whereas I believe the reluctance now is due mostly to the security concerns with the app. This is definitely a negative consequence of the app, as the US government was even considering banning it within the country due to national security concerns. Nowadays, TikTok has embedded itself into pop culture. People in our age group are constantly throwing around TikTok references and phrases. Downloading the app makes one a part of that culture and that ‘in’ group, which is a fact that is becoming increasingly hard to ignore.

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