Study Journal 5

Nov. 5th

• Weeder classes may be demanding in a way that men are more accustomed to than women - this could be hurting the pipeline of women coming in to CS.
•  Since teams benefit when they are composed of both women and men, it makes sense to seek out more women in computer science.
•  The culture of a company and the work environment can also influence whether women feel comfortable in computer science jobs.

Nov. 10th

• Violence in video games is bad enough that I would want to be careful about how much my children are exposed to it even if there's not a conclusive link to criminal behavior.
• Compulsive video game playing can be dangerous to one's responsibilities and social life.
•  Companies that are concerned about secrecy need to be careful of the way their employees use social media.

Nov. 12th

• Staying home and only focusing on childcare isn't working for a lot of women, since 80% of children in Utah have two working parents.
• Women are better able to excel in technology-related careers when they have friends and family who recognize their talent.
• One key to helping women feel included in the workforce is treating them the same as you would a man - don't make being a woman an issue.

Nov. 17th

• Technology has a bigger impact on the lives of younger couples than older ones.
•  For me, a balance between STEM-related education and liberal arts education has been beneficial. Only studying computer science and math would get boring for me.
• Since a lot of influential executives have liberal arts backgrounds, we can expect that a study of those disciplines should continue to be beneficial.

More Women in Computer Science (Current Events 5)

At Stanford University, only about 21% of undergraduate CS majors are women, in spite of the fact that the first two CS classes taught there have an equal gender ratio. This may be due to the male-dominated culture of computer science at Stanford or the fact that women don't hear about the CS major early on in their college careers. To counter this trend, Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni founded the group she++ to provide community and support for women pursuing tech careers. More women in computer science should be beneficial for companies who need more CS talent and for the US as a whole, since the demand for computer scientists is growing but the US has fewer CS graduates than many other countries. In class, the idea was raised that gender parity in computer science isn't something that we should be worried about, due to what the Family Proclamation says about men being mainly providers and women being mainly nurturers. However, research has shown that all-male teams tend to experience negative outcomes compared to other teams (see Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing). Plus, it hardly seems fair to assume that our LDS ideas about gender and gender roles should be imposed on people who don't share our beliefs. If people want to encourage more women to be in the workforce and it appears to be benefiting society, then they should do so.

Study Journal 4

Oct. 27th

• New technology and new business strategies can lead to problems in the market when people aren't used to them. The dot com bust is one example of this.
• Investment bankers were eager to have people buy stocks through them, and they encouraged tech companies to open up their stock for sale before they had become established, because bankers profited off of sales regardless of how well the stock did. Some people took advantage of this and sold stock in companies that didn't do anything.
• Insider groups tend to take advantage of markets when they have the opportunity to do so.

Oct.  29th

• The advent of computers has provided a lot of advantages in terms of communication and data management, but it also has its downsides, like providing anonymity for hateful groups or individuals or promoting anti-social tendencies.
• With new technology, there's a danger of losing sight of what we considered important before we had that technology.
• The subcultures that develop in online forums are often examples of how technology becomes mythic, because they tend to take the internet for granted and don't consider what life would be like without it.

Nov. 3rd

• Access to the internet for more people around the world could be an economic equalizer because people would have easier access to information they could use for business purposes.
• Although television used to have a big impact on public opinion, some of its influence has been lost because of the rising use of the Internet and social media.
• Because technology can change the whole fabric of society, we should be careful about how we implement it and allow it to take hold in a society.