Diffusion Theory

The very first glimpse of the technology that made television possible was an exclusive opportunity reserved for the privileged few. The idea was around for a while before it was willed into solid reality, and there isn't one person credited for its creation. To name a few, Philo Farnsworth, John Logie Baird, Charles Francis Jenkins, and Kenjiro Takayanagi were the pioneers of the technology. When first released, television sets ranged from $200-$600, with the higher end of that being equivalent to about half of the average annual salary at the time. The high price made it exclusively available to upper-class citizens, making them the early adopters of the technology. After the end of World War I, television became much more popular.  People weren't facing the threat of war and such bad economic hardships, and television had already evolved since its initial debut. The combination of these factors made television more accessible to middle-class Americans. They make up the early majority, the demographic who worked and typically lived in the suburbs and could afford a television. The lower-income households still couldn't afford television sets, even though they had become more affordable. This meant that low-income households, which were often African American households, were the late majority and laggards of this technology. Today, the market is totally saturated with this technology, pretty much as saturated as it possibly could be. Over 99%  of households have at least one television set. It’s hard to imagine life without television because it's always been such a significant part of daily life. That makes it difficult to see any downsides to the technology, instead, it's easy to see the benefits. It allows rapid communication of news stories and significant events. It allows us to watch things live without actually being in attendance, like the Super Bowl or the Presidential Inauguration. Of course, it also allows us access to shows and movies from the comfort of our own homes. We can enjoy stories of all genres with actors from all backgrounds with our televisions. Life would be very different if we didn't have access to these stories.