Diffusion of Innovation

    The diffusion of innovation theory helps define how ideas and innovations spread throughout time.

    Using that theory we can assess how emojis spread over time. At first, were the premieres, the group that came up with the idea in the first place, a group of Carnegie Mellon researchers. The idea was used around a small group of brave individuals willing to start and run with something new. Then came the early adapter companies, in Japan and East Asia begin to jump on board with the new idea and implement it into their standard programming. After that other companies tried to adapt emojis into their programming also because it was popular in other cultures. 

    Next, we move on to the late adopters, which basically are those who were resistant to innovation and change into their standard phones systems to incorporate emojis. Finally, we have the laggards those who are resistant to change and who do not adapt to the new technology. Not everyone always adapts to new technology and some never will. 

    
Based on the timeline of the diffusions of innovations I predict that emojis have now reached saturation into the market of online messaging. They now are normalized characters that we constantly use daily. I do not think they will leave our phones anytime soon and be replaced by another technology, however; I do think that there will be changes and elements added to them. Emojis are almost a necessity for phone messaging, since they are seen as necessary, they will not be deemed obsolete.