AlanBarber.Org
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Girls less confident on computers
The Globe and Mail has a report about a study done on high school girls in Canada and computer use.
“The new digital divide, says the study released yesterday by Statistics Canada, is not about access to computers and the Internet” that gap has all but disappeared, it says “but about a gender gap when it comes to attitudes and opportunities in a knowledge-based economy that relies heavily on a computer-literate work force.”
I would have to agree and disagree with the report.
First off the gap between those with computer/internet access and those without has not “all but disappeared”. I’m willing to bet that more than a billion people that still don’t have easily access to basic computers let alone the internet. But I’m not saying it’s something that we need to fix either. There are bigger priorities for billions of people. Very basic things like enough food, clean water, medicine, etc.
Secondly I do agree and can even see the gender gap when it comes to girls and computers. I’m a computer science major at college. There are probabbly a dozen girls in the entire program right now. How do I know? Becuase I see the same few girls in the labs and classes every day. Infact the most girls I’ve ever had in one of my classes is 3!
There are defineatally attitudes that young girls and women carry about computers. I will quote this from the following passage from the article:
“For example, when asked to rate their own computer skills, 38 per cent of the boys surveyed said their skills were “excellent” while just 17 per cent of the girls rated themselves as highly. When asked if they agreed with the statement, “It’s very important to work with computers,” 70 per cent of the boys agreed but just 58 per cent of the girls agreed.”
I really don’t know why less girls belive it’s important to work with computers. It’s not that they are persuaded from using computers. It’s just that in my opinion women are wired differently and always will be. Just look everywhere for examples of this.
Men like buying high-tech gadgets, big screen tvs, dvd players, fastest computers, fastest cars, etc and they always have to get the newest toys. Women on the otherhand hate buying new electronics. I know women that have used the same cellphone for 3-4 years while male friends change phones every few months.
One friend I know complains daily about how her cellphone is junk and the battery doesn’t hold a charge anymore. Yet when I tell her to just get a new phone she will fidget and moan about how it’s too much trouble to learn to use the new one and would cost too much to buy all the accessories she’ll need.
This is just the way women are. I really don’t think you will ever be able to change the attitudes and feeling toward technology that women have. At most they will be told over and over that they have to learn the technology and they will learn becuase they have to.
So on a final note let me share a little secret with you females reading this. Women that love computers and technology are sexy! Yes that’s right, I’m not joking here. Any woman that learns enough about computers and electronics to talk about them intelligently will find herself surround by men.
I’m sure you don’t belive me but if you’re out someplace like a bar or party just casually comment to your friends how you just updated your laptop to windows xp or how you just got a new pogressive scan dvd player for your tv. You’ll find men who would have never gotten close to you comming up to chat. Once they start talking to you, casually change the topics. It’s a great icebreaker for all women!
Women that show a hint of being geeky or nerdy will draw guys to themselves like flies to honey. You may think guys only look for big breasted blond bimbos but friendly intelligent women are just as attractive.
on 06/25/2003 at 04:17 PM