The Rogers Adoption Curve & How You Spread New Ideas Throughout Culture

I’m no fan of farming.

The agricultural dream is not my cup of tea, at all. Nor do I think raising chickens and tilling the earth is a good use of my time. This is the Information Age for crying out loud, nobody needs to be a farmer these days when it’s so easy to grow crops.

Despite my lack of love for the farming life, it is applicable to this article. The Rogers Adoption Curve got its start in agriculture.

For all my farmer readers (and anyone else well-versed in the agricultural arts), you might be familiar with farmers who are willing to try new seed, implement new plowing technics, etc.

They’re the early adopters. They’re always trying the newest tech, strategy, or idea.

You’ve also got farmers who aren’t so giddy to try the new thing.

They’re cautious, mired in tradition, skeptical, etc. It might take them years to implement new innovations, or have their neighbors and friends try it first.

But this theory isn’t limited to agriculture. It’s far more applicable, especially in the realm of social change.

An idea’s rate of acceptance depends a lot on what the idea itself is; but it also has a lot to do with the people accepting it. The early…