Technology wins again

Well, technology wins again, folks.

In a course I took this past semester, a lecturer discussed with us patterns of adoption in regards to trends and technology.  In general, the adoption of innovations among a population follows a bell curve: innovators are the first to use the new technology, followed by a few early adopters, then the majority picks up and finally the laggards figure it out.  The innovators and early adopters run the risk of grabbing onto trends that turn into busts (see laserdisc), while the laggards still get angry when they receive text messages.  My father typically will reply to a text accidentally, thumbing a jumbled mass of letters.  He is not an early adopter.

Pirated from allinio.com

Nor, typically, am I.   I have always attempted to hang somewhere around the early majority, steering clear of myspace but jumping on the facebook bandwagon pretty early.  I didn't get an mp3 player until the ipod came out.  Occasionally I hold off even longer.  As you can tell from the archives, viva la re didn't start until last September, once I was pretty sure most people had given up reading blogs altogether.

I first learned about Twitter a couple years ago, and I couldn't really figure out why it was becoming a big deal (such a question shows why I am not a early adopter).  People explained to me that the whole deal was just like facebook statuses - which are perhaps my least favorite part of facebook.  I do not care that the girl who sat in front of me in 11th grade homeroom is headed to the beach, nor am I concerned with pictures of casual acquaintances' childeren.  However, an influential friend (though not one I consider an early adopter) named Justin Rigoloso joined a few weeks back, and I have been voyeuristically following him without an account since.  Today Twitter is making an honest man of me

Thus have I ventured deeper into the world of social media.  That's right - just look at the sidebar.  You can now follow my tweets here at viva la re.  If you are part of the early (okay, lets be honest - late) majority and you care to follow on Twitter, the handle is @vivalare_.  For those interested in following my person, Will Williams, you may send a followers request to @fbwwilliams.

(As a side note, check out the Rigolosos' blog linked in my sidebar.  It is the blog I started reading before I decided to start one of my own.  They may not be early adopters, but they are certainly influencers.)