Ever the late adopter

On lagging behind

I am not an early adopter, I am a late/end of the cohort adopter of most things. I was (relatively) late to blogging and newsletters, smartphones and a million other things. I was late to watching many TV shows that other people enjoyed years ago. For example, I didn’t watch The Sopranos until 2024. I already knew about that infamous final scene of the series but I did enjoy filling in the rest of the blanks leading up to that climax, even if I watched it almost 20 years after the fact.

The only time that I’ve been at all close to being an early adopter was starting a Twitter account in 2007. That’s ancient history now but it’s a notable outlier.

A couple of weeks ago I became a late adopter of COVID-19. Somehow I had never contracted the virus during the past 4.5 years but at the end of August I was exposed and the damned thing finally took root in my body It’s pretty much over now except for the occasional cough or sneeze. Did 4 years of vaccinations make a difference in the long run? I’d like to think so as I didn’t have to be intubated or otherwise have my immune system shredded as if blasted by a machine gun.

Other people have had a much rougher time with the virus than I did. So I’m grateful that I essentially suffered through a terrible cold and sore throat combo when compared to the nasty outcomes some people faced.

But this experience takes me back to the whole idea of being an early adopter. Sometimes it’s really cool to be on the vanguard of technology, social movements or other innovations. Being first can have a lot of benefits.

On the other hand, a lot of early COVID-19 adopters… well, they aren’t around anymore. They didn’t have the knowledge (and vaccinations, I’m a firm believer that the vaccinations were more helpful than harmful) that was won after months and years of toil.

I don’t write about risk very much. I tend to take very carefully considered risks in most aspects of my life. Early adoption is often risky because you are trying something new and there’s not much information to be able to predict the results of what you are trying. Late adoption means that you get the good stuff later than many people but you also get the benefit of other people’s experience. I knew that The Sopranos had an excellent reputation among many people who love television so my only risk was whether or not the show would be compatible with my tastes in entertainment (which it largely was, yes).

I’ll admit that comparing catching a virus to cultural adoption is not necessarily a similarity that immediately comes to mind for many people. But maybe the two processes are more similar than not.

Have you been infected lately?