Blog #7 Diffusion of Innovations

 Over time there have been many different new products to come across. A technology that I think has changed the world forever is the television. The TV has been a product that has developed and changed many times over the years. However, it has never gone out of style. All the way up to modern day, a majority of American households have at least one TV set up. 

The first television model came out in 1927 but it wouldn't be until 1939 when it became available for the public to buy and set up in their homes. 

Then in 1940, color television was introduced and immediately grabbed the attention of consumers. The invention of color television was really the turning point of the new invention and established it as a household item. 

 The first television could only show images in black and white and had a single channel viewers could watch. It was called W2XCW.  This was the first time people could watch programs from their homes and not go to the movie theater for entertainment. That was the main attraction. 

At first people were a little skeptical of the tv. It was a huge device that had to be brought into the house and took up a lot of space. It was an unknown machine and who knew if it was even going to work. It also didn't work very well. 

The pictures repeated 12 times per second, there was dim lighting on the screen and the picture flickered constantly. The programs were boring and repetitive because there was only one channel that was on. This was all still apart of the launch phase so there was a lot of time for improvement. 

The radio was the only invention before the tv were Americans could bring entertainment into the house. Now they could watch that same show in real time on a screen. 

In the 1940's, color television turned around the negative response to the first model. CBS was the first channel to introduce color programs. 

By the 40's the television had many changes that improved the quality and draw for consumers to purchase a TV. By 1947 12 million families had a TV set up in their house.

The image was clearer and most had a bigger screen to view the program. There were many channels you could flick through to find something interesting, and of course the color.

Having the TV be in color was a game changer because it felt like you were right in the studio watching the show. Everything was real and you could see how it would look in real life. Families said it made them feel more unified sitting down and watching a show together.

Using the diffusion of theory, the introduction of color was the uptake for the TV. I don't think the TV has really moved from this point. It hasn't been on a decline because there is nothing else like it. We can use phones and tablets to watch shows now, but the TV is still the biggest device to stream and watch.

 

Today the TV is still something that brings families together. They sit down and watch the new Netflix series that came out or the football game for their home team. Most people don't see a problem with the TV. There are always the people that become addicted and can't pull themselves away from the TV, but there is always a downside to technology. 

The TV has been changing with the times. Now with smart TV's you can use all the different streaming services on that same TV and change up what you want to use. You can even have apps like YouTube downloaded onto a TV. There are so many versions of the TV that it's hard for it to start becoming saturated. Different brands and styles of TV's are going to fade out and become irrelevant but the TV itself is never going to go out of style.