Technology, the downfall of romance?

The Information Age began around 1837 with the vision of the first computer with Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. Since that day there have been major advances in technology; such as, the Kenbak-1 known as the world's first personal computer. Now people are more readily in touch than ever, but has this taken a toll on true old-school romance?

Since the dawn of technology generations have became increasingly lazy. The inventions of text messaging and video chatting services like skype have made it easy to stay in contact with people from the comfort of your home or where ever you happen to be. Why take the time to write and send a love letter like Beethoven's heartfelt letter to an unknown woman when you can quickly send a text to your loved one expressing the same idea in a reduced form?

Technology has taken the mystery out of dating. Today finding out about a person is as easy as finding a profile on a dating site or a simple facebook search (strictly educational purposes, no offense intended). With those you can see pictures, interests, status updates, and other information. Before technology you would have had to engage in an actual conversation to find out these things. Technology also adds a barrier between you and the other person, making it easy to avoid confrontation but also making it easy to pretend to be something entirely different.

It is my belief that people are inherently nosy beings. When you suspect that your significant other is cheating on you it seems the logical thing to do is look for an answer. With technology it is increasingly easy to search for that answer, though doing so is not morally sound. You check their browser history to see what kind of suspicious websites they have been visiting, you check to see if they left their email or social media site logged on and 'browse' their messages, or you snoop through their phone when they walk out of the room. Doing so is a blatant violation of trust, and will likely put added stress on your relationship if they were innocent.

While there are disadvantages that technology has brought to the dating world there are also advantages. Dating sites allow you to meet people from all over the world. In Greek mythology it is said that humans were originally combined but Zeus feared their power and split them apart, leaving you to spend your life searching for your other half. Why not have access to the whole world to search? Technology has also made long-distance relationships more feasible. With the invention of video chat women/men can video chat with their husband/wife who are deployed This is the closest thing to being face-to-face that has been invented to date.

We live in an ever-changing world that adapts to what people invent. Technology has not ruined romance, instead romance has shaped into a new form. Technology has given us a wide range of ways to keep in contact and broaden our social connections romantically and otherwise. While I have not met an adult who would scoff at a well-written love letter; emails and text messages have became applicable substitutes.

Are stereotypes keeping women out of Computer Science?

(I think my Dad took fashion advice from this man.)

Three years ago as I was setting with my fellow future computer scientists during orientation week I realized something disheartening. As I was setting waiting for more people to arrive, one by one about twenty male students entered the room. One lone female walked in, but to my dismay she took a quick look around and promptly made her exit.

Today, after having lost a scholarship on the grounds that we were not doing enough to entice women to major in computer science, I wonder why women do not choose computer science.

As we all should know, the pristine credit of the world's first computer programmer goes to a woman by the name of Ada Lovelace. The work that brought her this title was in the notes of her translation of Luigi Menebrea's account of the Analytical Engine, where she wrote a computer program describing how to use it. How is it that as our society grew we went from the pioneer of computer science being a woman to struggling to get women interested in computer science? A common answer I have found is stereotypes.

A common stereotype is that men have a technical brain, while women simply do not. Which theoretically leaves women behind in the technology and mathematics fields. The question of why women do not choose computer science is a common topic for applications. That question prompted one student to survey her classmates to find out why. Common generalizations she found include, women enjoy jobs where they interact with people and women have smaller brains.

The real answer may lie with an idea called stereotype threat. This occurs when a person knows that a stereotype is present and by doing or failing to do a certain thing they could be judged based on this stereotype. A study performed on female students taking a math exam showed that those who were asked their gender before the exam performed worse than those who were asked their gender after the exam.

Another study was performed on female students on their interest in computer science. One group of students was surveyed in a room that was decorated with star trek posters, soda cans, and sci-fy books. The other group was surveyed in a room that was decorated in a neutral fashion, with nature posters on the wall. The students that were surveyed in the nature room were more likely to indicate that they were interested in computer science classes.

Knowing that these stereotypes exist and that we may be judged by them can take a huge toll on a persons self-confidence. This causes them to over-think what they are saying and may lead to them feeling so out of place and discriminated against that they leave all-together. The absence of women in computer science makes women feel like they cannot fit in and they cannot succeed so they instead turn to a career where they feel more accepted.

Coming into college as one of the few female computer science students in my class I felt that I did not fit in, and I still feel like maybe I would be more suited to a major where the atmosphere is more geared towards women. I have found through experience though that my rate of success is on par or higher than my male classmates, leaving me to believe that the only hindrance for women in computer science is that of stereotype threat and not intellectual ability.