Unit 2 Essay: Summary #2, Analysis #2

The second article is about why girls need to become computer geeks. The article talks about why computer science is not for girls, and how the major is really hard. It also talks about how being in the field is beneficial for your life, if you want to be a family man/woman. The article also says that coding is creative, it may be hard at first, but if you stay with it just like any other career you can create anything your mind is set out to, women want creativity, but they think that CS is not a good way to create. The conclusion of the article also says that a job in technology can give financial freedom, and the right to do anything you want because coding is a demanding skill for just any job possible.

The article to me was kind of weak, but still strong because even though some women can just try to see past the exterior of the major there is always going to be a negative stereotype of the major amongst girls. I don’t think that it’s going to overcome, because as long as the stereotype of a “Geek” is negative among society, computer science will always have be hand in hand with the geeks. 

Unit 2 Essay: Summary #1 Analysis #1

The first article I found is from DotDiva.com, and what their article is about is why girls are so turned off by computer science. Even though girls are doing really well in math and science, they see Computer science as “Nerdy”, “Boring”, and “Antisocial”. For teen girls this career does not deliver, they want a career that is fulfilling and bring a better change in the world, and to them being in a computer creating a program does not bring change in the world.

This article’s argument is strong, because Computer Science does not seem as a girl major, at all. From an early age girls are depicted as a gender who likes dolls, make-up, books, and being in touch with themselves, while guys are more rowdy, loud, and stubborn. Also they see computer science as hard, as programmers have to solve problems in programs, and find bugs for hours and hours.

About this blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog about unpopularity in computer science. If you guys are avid tech geeks like i am you will find yourself asking the same question i am trying to unfold and....why is computer science popular? Well in this blog i am going to show you guys the answers to computer science by the research i have done in order to solve this. Hope you enjoy this blog!

Letter to the girls who think they are all that and bag of chips!

Dear girl who hates math and computer science:

Well to be honest I don’t know why I even bother why I try to write you this but look, I know that computer science is not always cracked up to be, I know the boy that you reject every time he asks you out is going for that path for the rest of his life is kind of  a geek and a nerd, but reconsider your options here if you know that you have a passion of computer science why staying away from it just because it seems like somebody with no life would choose it, I mean its not that bad darling, if you look at tours of Google on the internet you can see that it’s a state of the art place to work with slides, a gym inside, healthy food and other activities for you to do, it’s a workplace never seen before, I mean sure you can travel around the world and experience different things, but maybe if your good enough Google can fly you out somewhere enjoy your life while doing a project! Come on Darling Consider it, you don’t need a lot of math like they say you do, I suck at math too, I’m in elementary algebra for Pete sake, I’m in the same as my LITTLE BROTHER!, but I’m still going for it because I know I believe in computer and technology as a whole, why cant you? Why can you be the next Steve jobs, or the next bill gates? Why can’t make a revolutionary that will change the tech industry forever? Don’t treat geeks and nerds bad because the people who are crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do, and that is a fact so think about it, and write me back because I get very lonely.


Sincerely,


Claudio Bardales

My Trip to Google!

You can tell that this is not a picture that i took while i was at Google but i did go to check it out its funny actually that the security guard was cool and let me in, but told me not to go in the building or i would get him in trouble. So when i got in to the building, it was just simply amazing it was my first time going in there, but who i saw walking around are people who was my age just hanging out during their break and just having the time of their lives, some of them were working some of them were playing games on their smartphone. The reason i didn't take no photos is because for some reason it was not  allowed inside the campus, that's what the guard told me so i just went with it ( I didn't wanted to get him trouble so i listened to him) What i didn't like about this mini trip is the cooperation of other workers that did not wanted to help me do an interview for my other part of the blog so i couldn't find anybody, but nonetheless it was really fun i really saw myself working for them and find the next best thing in technology, maybe next weekend ill visit apple campus and hang around there as well to see how it.

Political Cartoons

So this comic strip is about a Man on December 31, 1999 at 11:59 pm using a computer, and a caveman in January 1 2000, 12:01 am trying to use technology. This political cartoon was really interesting because it represents so many things not just the y2k scare in the late 90s. It  represents something that people are afraid of technology and afraid that they can get sucked in, and that is the fact that people cant live without technology that's how i see it, and the reason why is because it has become a natural extension of the human race. That's another reason why people don't like technology because its addicting, and in a way its true, but its not bad like drugs or alcohol, they are just afraid of change and getting out of the bubble in my opinion.

So this strip is about two things (I don't know if they are chickens or monsters) One looking at the other working nonstop in a computer. This also takes me back to the fear of computer science and working for companies like apple, Google, and Microsoft, and its about having a monotonous job description and just press a lot of numbers and letters and you make software. My response to this is that whoever makes these cartoon have me flabbergasted because CS is not a major at all you can make it fun, if you have a sociable personality you can make any environment fun!

"Think Different" Video

Before i start my analysis.....I know this video is not 30 minutes long its barely more than half, but i just really loved this video and it connected to me and my very being.



Summary:



The video was about marketing and the how the commercial represent the vision and the passion of Steve jobs and every apple employee.



Analysis:



I found a couple of interesting things about this video. The fact that there was no girls in the entire audience, you can tell that computer science was still not popular with the ladies back then either. The body language of Steve was interesting you can tell right off the bat that he was a very zen type of person.



Response:



That was my first time watching this video i was looking into other presentation that he made like the iPhone one, and the ipod one, but this one even thought it was short captivated me in mere minutes when he said his famous quote "The people who are crazy enough to change world, are the ones who do." And that really got me because being different in this day and age is considered bad, but one of the tech titans in the world today tell me that being different is alright i might just have a chance in the CS Field for sure.

My Perspective on My Research and Blog Question.

My perspective

            So out of all of the research I have done about my major and its issues I can safely say that I do know why computer science in unpopular in schools and in colleges, it’s the image. Now you are confused reading this essay expecting fancy statistics, and fancy terminology, but what you are getting is just something that I have observed in movies, TV Shows, Books, and on the internet.

In society no matter where you go there is always social standings as in how popular you are, who you are dating, who is your parents, how much money you have and how good looking you are, in high school this is no different, and because of that there is the wolf and there is the sheep, the wolf are the athletes or the people in the yearbook and the people who are in leadership planning school projects and such, and on the sheep side there are the outcasts, nerds, and the geeks. The “Sheep” of the school don’t really get into groups are mostly all introverted, and just want to spend time with themselves; those people are usually into games, anime, and technology.

The people who like technology are people who are out of touch in world so to speak they want to find another to establish their legacy by inventing something revolutionary and being the hero in the end, and I think that’s why computer science is looked down upon, it’s the lowest pinnacle of the human, if your not pretty, or athelic then your not noticed by your peers and friends. Computer science is the major for people who never had those experiences in high school like prom and going to football games, keep in mind that I had those experiences when I was in high school, but that’s because I was different from others, and still loved computers, think why girls are not going into the computer science field is because that life is not exciting, they want to relive the days of high school when everything was glamorous and amazing for them, and  to them computer science is nothing much than just writing a bunch of letter and numbers and something on the screen will pop up and like magic software is created, but they are dead wrong.

Computer science can be exciting if you give it to the right person, geniuses only come once in a generation and since Steve jobs died I think somebody is up for job of revolutionizing technology as we speak you may think that everything has been thought of, but on the contrary the possibilities are still endless to this day, that’s why geeks want to get into this field is because want to feel power and respect among their peers something that they have never experienced in high school or in their life mostly, it’s a feeling that they want to find just by being themselves, and not acting like somebody else.  

Another reason why I think computer science is unpopular is because of the media involved, now lets look at all TV shows when geeks are portrayed in, and if you see any cartoon or movie you will see that geeks are usually into Science, Math, or technology. To me that’s  really disgusting because kids will in their mind look at the horrible portrayal of the nerd or the geeks and not want to touch computers or not want to get into technology and right there we could’ve lost a Steve jobs or a bill gates. If computer science was portrayed like it is now we wouldn’t have this problem the media and the popular people would look at us in a different light and not really ridicule us in a way that we feel that we have to prove ourselves to be accepted into society. But then again it’s our fault as well how we are portrayed we just want to be accepted into social groups and have fun just like the everyone else, because we don’t take the initiative into making friends because we are introverted and shy, not want to try not even a little to integrate into society.

            One minor reason why computer science is not popular in my opinion is the math involved in programming and hardware engineering. When students go to their counselor to talk about the major they get turned off because of the math classes they have to take. In a way I can understand why people don’t like math, because I hate math as well, but you need to be a person who loves computers in order to sacrifice and try to get better at a subject that you had trouble with for years.

I think once people can get over of all of the reasons of computer science, I think it can be one of the most popular majors of the century and not only that this is going to be a necessity to learn CS because technology is rapidly changing every 3 years who knows what is the next best thing going to be invented? That is one of the laws of computer science is the fact that its constantly evolving which means that there will be always a demand in that field which also means more jobs, so if you your mind into it and try to get better at CS whether is be Hardware or Software go for it because your going to love it and you can be the next person that has the revolutionary company and change the world.

REFLECTION

Reflections

            So at first when I first developed my research question I was a little skeptical to say the least, to be honest I just picked it out of nowhere without really thinking about if they were actual information out there regarding unpopularity in computer science, but when I started digging up information about it, I started to shy away from the generalization of computer science to a specific category which was girls, and then I started having more information, but the articles that I have found were useless, not bad, but no the information I was looking for.

            When I did the project on social pressures with my team I started to do some critical thinking on my question again, and I said to myself “Let’s try again” and I got back to researching, and I found way more stuff and much concrete explanations’, not only that I watched the movie “Jobs” and that movie also made me figure out why girls were not into computer science and the number one reason was because of social pressures in school, but not so much in family. So the movie and the articles I found when I was doing my unit 2 essay helped me understand that there were a lot of factors in why there were no girls in computer science is because its not popular to  be a geek in high school.

BOOK REVIEW

Book Review

            Since I have researched a lot of why computer science is unpopular I wanted to go right to the source of this, and learn about the man and the company who started the trend of computer science: Steve Jobs. I picked his autobiography into possibly find some answers to my questions and needless to say I found some answers indirectly of course. The book is about Steve jobs and his whole life how he started apple and how he met everybody in his life. This story started in the Silicon Valley when he got adopted by his parents. When he was in school he was a prankster always causing mischief and just having fun, from then on he met Steve Wozniak, and they started this computer called “The Cream Soda Computer” Because when they were inventing it while they were drinking cream soda. That little invention was the foundation and mentality of apple, Jobs never in his wildest dreams would he ever wanted to start the company that we all know today.

            Steve was really into the beat of his own drum, he dropped out of Reed College in 1974 just to figure himself out and check what he wanted to do. He wasn’t really that religious, he was considered an agnostic. When he when to bible study he questioned the teacher there how god was not doing anything to improve the world, and the teacher told him passages from the bible, and jobs didn’t buy it and he walked out, he was into Buddhism and into being Zen, he went to India with a monk who preached in reed college, and he found himself, not only that he did a lot of drug especially LSD. 

            When apple started waging war against IBM, jobs started to change he wanted to keep seeing his vision he almost forgot about his friends, but when he was dropped from project Lisa, he got into the Macintosh team and he made the computer that made Microsoft windows, and the Imac and the Mac os x. But the Macintosh flopped, and because of the price increase, and IBM and other smaller companies like Microsoft at the time they were doing better.  The shareholders wanted another person to be the CEO, and jobs got eventually got kicked out of his own company. When Steve jobs got kicked out, he made another computer and market it, but then when he got back into apple he combined the computer he made with the Macintosh and made the Mac os x.

            Steve jobs were the leader in the tech industry Post-IBM. He revolutionized everything related to technology today. He made something that had been intergraded into our very beings for decades now: Home computer, but after reading the book I didn’t find a direct argument in his book, but an argument nonetheless I found. Which was the reason why computer science is not popular is because of the competition of other companies they always want young fresh minds to market and make money out of. Computer science is for people that care about technology anybody who has that passion, I guess computer science are for people who are considered outcasts, and not popular in high school or in college, they are seen as people who are introverts and shy and unsocial to everybody else, and that’s what is the turn off of computer science but as how Steve jobs said “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them” That’s really the main argument in this book is that they scared of the job environment, and don’t want to be stuck in a cubicle in a office working on software for the rest in their lives.

I don’t agree with the argument because technology should be right now in this time a natural extension of the human being. People who are considered nerds, geeks, wee boos, people with no social class are the people that will lead the human race into evolution that’s why I am proud to be a computer science major, because I know that even though in my high school years was not popular or much liked I know that when I get my degree and work for one of these companies I know that I will make something so revolutionary that it will inspire others into getting into the field. I think computer science is gaining popularity as we speak, with websites popping up that teaches the main foundation of computer science which is programming. If we can find a better way to show people that computer science is not for the outcast, it can be for the average joe, we can make computer science one of the most popular majors in the country if not the world, we just need somebody to lead the ship into the right direction, and since Steve jobs has passed away right now there is a seat open for anyone, no matter what company they work for to step up make computer science popular, and make it a good working environment.

            Computer science is not just making software or hardware is much more than that, people just think that this what they are going to do the for rest of their lives and that’s not it, you have to be some type of humanitarian to be in computer science, because if you are not then you’re going to feel like work in cubicle for the rest of your life. Computer science has a chance to be popular and it will be its just a matter of time when people realize that this is the best way to go.

MY PERSONAL STATEMENT!

Personal Statement

            I have had a lot of career paths ever since I have graduated out high school, from psychology to being a pro wrestler, but there is something that have always caught my eye ever since I was a little kid, and that was technology. Technology is something that I have always enjoyed having in my life. When I was in Peru I started to use remote controls from TVs at a very young age and having a home computer with windows 98 and just mess around notepad and paint. My life has improved with technology over the years. I was always updating myself when new devices came out, and I was always the one that members of my family would come for help for any tech help.

When I was in High school I started going to therapy and I had this psychiatrist named George. He was really cool with me we talked about everything about my life and how to improve it, and to cooperate with my parents. Those sessions inspired me to look into the field of psychology. The field of psychology is very interesting to me, because the human mind is so complicated its like a computer itself that’s how I looked at it, I wanted to take a person feelings apart, and see what triggers what and what makes a person sad, and what makes a person happy. Also my family suggested that to me, so that I can use the studying I was going to do to help myself and in own life and help others as well, I was sold in the field, because at the time I did not require that much math just until Statistics in College so I was happy I chose this as my major at the time. But then something changed it was something that made me realize that this is not the major I wanted to be. My aunt is a psychologist in Peru, and she is really good. She helps out a lot of patients and she has a high success rate with them, but with herself not so much, her mind was too one-dimensional, and she was very close minded, and very depressing as well, because psychologist and psychiatrists tend to repress their feelings a lot, and me being stuck in an office for probably 8 hours by myself thinking about how their life is makes me feel sad.

            When I decided to change my major I didn’t know what I wanted to be for the first time so I got lost and looked up was similar to the concept of technology. When I started to realize that computer science was my dream major, I didn’t have the confidence to go through with the major because of all of the good grades and all of the math class I had to take. So I would just give excuses to myself saying that I can’t do it, I’m not good enough. But I had no other choice, I was in a very bad situation, and I wanted to stay with a major that I really liked and wanted to practice, even if it took for a long time, because this is the major I should’ve went for all this time.

The reason that I think that I can be good for this major is not a proficiency in math or being good at programming right away, but my willingness to keep improving and to actually ask questions about my field and network with other people to help get to where I want to be, I want to keep growing in the community of coding as well and show everybody that its not so bad, just need to keep at it until you master the language. But I know I have the ability to be one of the best in the tech field and change programming to the point that everybody can do it, and create programs to make things and make things easier for the world. You can say Computer Science is a Lazy Major, because people in the field like to make programs for them mass audience to use and make their lives easier. I just want to strive in this field and I don’t think I’m ever going to change majors again. Computer science will change my life in a positive way, and help my family in the long run.