Email? You Use Email?

  

    As previously explained in detail in the blog, email has changed the game in terms of social and work communication. In saying this, there were many doubters and nonbelievers in the viability of the technology in the beginning. In order to observe how email caught on, we will use the theory called Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation (or Ideas).

  

    In the beginning and as part of the experimental phase, the pioneers of the email were inventors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who were the first to envision the idea and conceptualize the first version of email. Following the inventors at MIT, is the ARPANET system which helped enable email.

    In the following years, email caught on and involved the early adopters which were the people who continued to grow the use of ARPANET. This is influenced by more use in email systems, even Queen Elizabeth II in the 1970s. 

    Then, as a part of the uptake phase the early majority started to catch on to using email. This is exemplified by big companies in the 1990s beginning to produce their own email networks such as Lotus Notes. This was followed by AOL who continued to propel email forward as more people started getting interested.

    In the maturation phase were the late adopters in the late 1990s and 2000s as Microsoft, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail all started their email services which continued to spread the use of email to more people.

    As a part of the saturation phase, there are the laggerds. The laggerds are the small number of people who still refuse to use email. This number has continued to get smaller due to the increased ability to use email from the Blackberry and iPhone. I personally find it hard to believe that there are people who still adamantly refuse to use email, but I guess there must be a few people who do not use email. After analyzation, it is safe to say that email has caught on to the masses as a successful form of communication.