Diffusion of the Typewriter: From the First Word Processor to Hipster Novelty

Roger's Diffusion of Information Theory is designed to track the use of technology from its introduction to its inevitable decline. This theory can be applied to the use of the type writer. The type writer was introduced in 1868 by Christopher Sholes, the pioneer of this technology. The early adopters of became notable in 1872 with the introduction of the electric typewriter by Edison, as his alterations to the initial design made it easier to use and harder to jam. Then in 1874 the original patent was sold to Remington and Sons, and it became possible to mass produce the typewriter, though it didn't truly enter the early majority section of the curve until 1917, when the first truly portable machine was debuted. These years marked the height of the typewriter's popularity, especially with the release of the electromagnetic typewriter in 1933.

The tipping point for the typewriter happened around 1964, when the magnetic tape typewriter, as this is when computers and word processors began to become available, and gradually became more convenient that typewriters, but they were still used by the late adopters and people who didn't care for computers and how clunky they could be compared to the, but now, reasonably streamlined typewriter.

Now in 2020, we face the laggards of the typewriter era: hipsters, poets, and other holdouts who like the feeling of using a typewriter, or who find them aesthetically pleasing or fun to use. While there are plenty of these people still out there, actively using typewriters everyday, the numbers of people using them will never return to how they were at their peak.