The 7 Stages of Social Denial
I love introducing new social technology to people and watching them go through the 5 stages of social denial. They usually look something like this:
Stage 1: The “Aw Hell No” Stage (today this would be things like Blippy — blog post coming about this btw)
“That’s so lame, no one will use it” or “I don’t need another X in my life” or “That’s trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist” or “GASP, what about my privacy!”
Stage 2: The Lurking Stage (today this would be Google Wave)
“Hm, ok, its interesting to see what other people are doing on this but its not something I’d ever do” or “I can see how its valuable for those kind of people, but not for me”
Stage 3: The Reluctant Trial Stage (today this would be Farmville)
“Ok, since we talked at least 10 other people I know have suggested this, so I guess I’ll try it”
Stage 4: The Momentum Stage (today this would be services like Foursquare)
“Wow, I’m really starting to dig this” or “You’ll never guess what level I just achieved/friend I just met/place I just found out about from this service!”
Stage 5: The Changed My Life Stage (today this would be Facebook and Twitter)
“If this service ever goes out of business, I’m going to die”
Stage 6. The Loss Stage (today this would be AOL instant messenger) ~ addition by @lance
“Golly I don’t IM that much anymore.”
Stage 7. The Grandpa Stage ~ addition by @andrewwatson
Where the young punks of the day don’t even know what you’re talking about? MOO? MUD? BBS? Usenet? WTF?
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by jeffhilimire: New blog post: The 5 stages of social denial http://jeffhilimire.com/2010/01/the-5-stages-of-social-denial/…
Stage 6. The Loss Stage. Golly I don't IM that much anymore. (today this would be AOL instant messanger).
Is it possible to be at every stage at the same time? I feel like I'm all over the place…
You bet! I'm in all stages too, this blippy thing has me thinking, do I really want all my purchases to be broadcast over the web? Hell no!
Blippy is a little far out for me.. Letting people see my new plane, Porsche, and 3rd home would be a little to in your face. Just kidding they would be seeing Dentist bills for my kids, my bar tab, and the bill to fix my daughter's new kitty.
You got the stages right on. I just got my daughter into Foursquare and ouch she is like mayor everywhere and I know where she is all the time almost LOL ( Parental control) She just turned 18 wish I had her on this at 16.
[…] I’m a pretty early adopter. But this is a stretch even for me. In fact, I’m clearly in Stage 1 of Social Denail when it comes to Blippy. Oh, I’ve gotten fully into the whole check-in thing, and I tweet all […]
This is so true and very funny! Thanks for the post.