In the article, Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, the limitations and even the spectrum of why there are so few women in these fields occur. The article opens with how in this day and age there are women primarily in other fields, such as medicine, law and even business. So the question is, why are women taking over these areas of study and careers when there are so few in science, tech, engineering, and math? Well by the research conducted in 2010 by the American Association of University Women, it assisted in finding evidence as to why this is true. It seems to be that there are many environmental and social barriers for women, things such as stereotypes that women face in these areas of study, gender biases against women, and how women are treated in the science and engineering departments at universities. These can be huge road blocks for women on the path of their career are may even intimidate women and force them out of wanting to study, if they even got as far as the college level of interest. It seems that before women attend university, there are not taught or told as young females that they too can be engineers and scientist. The underlying gender based stigma that these prominent and insanely complicated fields are for men and aren't an area for women to progress in.
Women in STEM find that the stereotypes threats come about in stations where negative aspects of women live. It is often that women can not perform to standard in these fields and that they could even hold their teammates back. Women that study in these areas find that they have more internal barriers as well. Women are found to have extra cognitive behaviors that hinder their performance when it comes to exams in math and science. The stereotypes and behaviors are known to women that enter the field but perhaps are established until they themselves experience it first hand. The article states, “A reference to this stereotype, even one as subtle as taking the test in a room of mostly men, can adversely affect her test performance. When the burden is removed, however, her performance will improve. Stereotype threat is one compelling explanation for why women remain underrepresented in STEM fields.” It is clear that the stereotypes can affect women performance even more directly, such as that of racial implications for other students in many different fields. There are some individuals that, which a fixed mindset, believe that intelligence is static and only those born with it can succeed to their full potential. However, there are others with a growth mindset that believe intelligence can be achieved and developed overtime. It is important to keep an open mind as well as a growth mindset so that young women can be told they too can achieve proper skills through being taught and not because they were simply “born with it” or not. Personally I have experienced first hand that men in these areas of study and majors feels that it is not a place for women. I have overheard this and even been told it directly, however that has yet to stop me from being apart of something greater. I understand not all men feel this way but from seeing and hearing it first hand I can say those stereotypes are alive and well.
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Social media has been used by various interests groups to get their projected beliefs across. The use of an online presence for these groups helps in gaining followers and directly speak out about policies they would like to address. An interest group by the name of VotoLatino (Link) uses all forms of social media from Twitter and Facebook to Instagram and even iTunes to reach out to their following. They have used these social media outlets to get young Latinos motivated to go out and vote and become more politically aware as a group.
Upon visiting VotoLation’s website, I’m clearly directed to see that they have other forms of media attached to their homepage. They have icons for all other media outlets like Facebook and Twitter and even Vine. VotoLatino states that “Latinos are the second fastest growing group of Americans” but that of the all the eligible Latino voters, a total of 41 percent of them did not even register. What VotoLatino is doing to grow the number of voters is by reaching out to them directly online. Using Twitter, they have had posts trend in high numbers by their 60,500 followers and their post are that of political awareness. VotoLatino’s Facebook page shares articles regarding Latino’s in politics, and just three months ago they posted an article that stated that the public polls being posted about Trump having “25 percent of the Latino vote” are wrong and that the percentage of Latino voters for Donald Trump are much lower. That article already has over 500 reactions from followers, and 231 shares in only a four hour time frame. VotoLatino has also reached out to young eligible Latino voters through the use of iTunes. They have partnered with Apple and music artist to develop free music samples to be shared with “those who affiliated themselves with the organizations e-mail list”. Giving away such incentive to get young Latinos out there and exercise their right to vote is clearly a success. Sharing articles on twitter and constantly reminding their followers to register to vote and to inclusively remind them to tell their friends to vote helps get their message across. Overall, it is clear that the main objective of VotoLatino is to get young eligible Latino’s to go out and have their voice be heard. Registering to vote is the biggest objective pushed by VotoLatino and they have successfully done that by the use of social media. Addressing the alarmingly low number of registered Latino voters and helping motivate young users online helped develop this cause. Growing up in a half Latino household, being proud of my heritage was always a defining factor in my family. If I see representation of my culture online and forming groups that I felt welcomed in, this would ignite my will to vote and become part of something greater. VotoLatino has successfully gotten younger Latino’s to register and it can only become a stronger entity overall, by the use of an online presence. The technological advances that social media platforms have brought fourth for interest groups has greatly helped get their message to everyone and it is clear that followings are growing greater due to this technological advancement. Over time the interest of keeping information and an overall conglomerate of data relevant has been useful for many reasons. Large schemes of information have been collected and organized to help with medical records, criminal records, and even money circulations. Of course the Unites States Government and a large number of organizations as well as businesses and corporations have found the need to keep information and tracked records together and adaptable to any advancement. The term “Big Data” is used to describe the “extremely large data sets that may be analyzed to reveal patters, trends and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions” (Oxford Dictionary, 2015). Collecting of these big data sets can be as easy as collecting and keeping organized information, like those have been doing for generations, however the actual expansion of the data to be used for any other reason besides storage is what the large aspect of computing the analysis of the information. This brings us into what exactly is the next step to what Big Data can mean for not only the entity of the United States government and corporations, but for the mass of the United States citizens and consumers overall (Arthur, 2013). There is a divide on Big Data as connected to personal privacy for all individuals. As much as Big Data helps in keeping records organized and in order, many believe that this is an invasion of personal space and targeting certain information to direct people is an invasion of privacy overall. It seems that corporations have developed a use for these large data sets in their favor. Big companies believe they are doing it for the greater good, by creating a culture where not only is everything easily accessible, how creating a world of convenience for everyone. It seems that because nearly everyone shops at large corporations like Target, and even Best Buy, these companies gather the large data sets to apply it to one specific customer. If a customer decides to shop at these corporations, be it in person or online, they are agreeing to have their data collected and analyzed by these companies. These companies gather the information about their customers and target either certain ads or even coupons for these customers to find more motivation to shop, especially at competitive pricing. The patterns looked at by Target identify what their customers are browsing online, even if at different sites, and use that to lure their shoppers in. Big Data has become a huge controversy over the course of the last couple decades because it is getting clearly more creeper just how easily accessible our information is as citizens. It seems that these companies are just using Big Data to benefit not only their sales, but their customers. Because living life so comfortably and conveniently has become the norm, it is understandable why companies analyze the information. However, users and customers also have the right to question what information they are leaving open for anyone to just take. Overall, I think us as consumers can use tools to help less of our information be tracked, be it by giving out different names for free rewards programs in stores, or even clearing cookies after browsing the internet.
According to the article “Ethical Issues With Business Technology,” its obvious that there have been plenty of technological advances in the field that allow for better and stronger business movement. Technology has allowed for business to branch out and really reach their goals in whatever business they might be in. Anything from an office creating better spaces for their employees, or more convenience for their customers that they serve. However, with the implication for having everyone rely more heavily on technology, there have been some ethical issues that have come up for discussion. Companies have “self-censor” their content and have procedures internally that can stop some of these ethical mishaps, however not all can be discounted for.
Now privacy may be the largest sought out in any company. Of course with agreeing to work into certain laws generated by the company themselves, employees can be limited to what they can do, or not do, at work or even as part of the company outside of work. Individual privacy is an area where bad ethics can play a big role in whats wrong with the company internally. Big or small, these companies can track their employees movement online through internet usage or what they say at work. Other implications of this matter have to do with the privacy issue of their clientele. Customers buying and selling tracking and developing new forming information on big data that can be retrieved from their customers is a hot debate surrounding the tech field constantly. Another issue that mirrors closely to privacy is the communication content in the work place. Before companies could not really monitor phone conversations, however now it seems to be more and more common with many different businesses. Even text base information is not safe, things such as text messages, or emails as well. The ethical implications that stem from these technology advances for companies can be limitless. Security can rely simply on the idea of securing company buildings physically, but can also mean the more personal side of things. Maybe retrieving information for visitors at work and collecting information about these people that otherwise would not have been sought out if it wasn't for technology. It seems that at any given time wherever we turn, we are being monitored. For the greater good or just for companies selfish needs, we see that there are many issues that lie within security. Companies may believe they are doing it for the betterment of everyone involved, however this may not always be true. Close monitoring can bring about many unanswered questions that technology wants to help fill with answers. Overall it seems that if we agree with it or not, there will always be issues of security and privacy in the work place. In the article, “Malware in the browser: how you might get hacked by a Chrome extension” I stumbled upon on my search for privacy concerns my boss was insisting the IT department look into, I found that not even Chrome extensions are safe. The article first explains how reliant everyone has become on browsers, with the obvious web applications and websites for every company and interest, there is no wonder we are being forced online more and more everyday. Not to say that going online is a horrible thing, just that the general public does not now the safety precautions they should take and continue taking while browsing the internet. The author further talks about how “it seems like most people are unaware of how big on an attach vector browser extensions have become.”It seems that because not too many people have become familiar with extensions, or the general public not taking the time to inform themselves of the threats behind them, they go unnoticed and somewhat work in the background of all the online browsing traffic. There is little to almost no protection against these threats because of the lack of consideration for extension malware, and this is a different tunnel of information that an antivirus cannot assist online users with.
The author of the article shares that his friend was infected with a malware virus via Facebook, and his friend had no idea it was happening. He was able to figure that his friend’s Facebook account was being controlled by a malware virus simply by seeing unusual activity on his account, things such as odd click bate articles his friend liked , or even following suspicious accounts his friend had never even heard of. Things like randomly liking pages and odd posts aren't too odd of activity, however finding out just how it happened was a mystery. Anyone, despite their tech background (or lack there of) these days can easily make a Facebook account and their information is still threatened on a well-known social media outlet. The article discusses just how Facebook can be a dangerous place for hackers to get into your computer and get ahold of any information you have stored or floating. Through somewhat extensive research, the author was able to determine how his friend was taken advantage of through malware. Apparently his friend clicked on a Facebook page one day while browsing, as we all do, and accidentally clicked a popup window on the actual Facebook page telling him to verify his age. The verification was through a Chrome extension so on the surface it seems like no threat, however popups on Facebook are almost unheard of. So through one click of the age verification extension on Chrome, his profile was taken complete control about and randomly liked suspicious posts and pages. Overall, it is clear that everyone needs to take the time to better understand malware, browser extensions, and even realize just how unsafe any website can be. The text opens up by discussion in large text that the Industrial Revolution created problems spread all across the states and needed to be dealt with immediately. The article continues by stating these solutions helped in contact with resources at the time but are now outdated. The process of looking at things from a mass scope and all-inclusive is not as effective as looking at it through individuals in society. Digital technology has surfaced a whole new way to look at society information through data analysis online.
Digital Bread crumbing is the process in which we all participate. Phone calls, places we visit, things we buy, and even things we eat are all recorded and used online. We often update our social media outlets with the way we want to be presented, but these bread crumbs are actual data on how we live our lives, more of what is put out about us versus what we put out. The New Deal on Data is a proposal about owning your own data, and thus having control of all the information that is put out for others to see. Again going back to the idea of what we put out versus what is put out about us. Treating personal data as an asset, those can pay to own their own information, and overall creating a market and profit for information “data”. If you own the rights to your data you can decide what information can be thrown away or hidden, and what you would like to stand out to those who look at your data. Maximizing idea flow can be used to our benefit as in growth of a society and what this means for humanity. We can use big data to diagnose problems and predict successes but the information can be used for more than that. We can use all this data to create cities and governments that are better and more advanced than where we are at today. This information can affect productivity and creative output. A company can diagnose problems or disconnects they have from output versus customers. Being about to back track on all this information will solve problems and help bring forward issues that need to be discussed. There are many ways these big data sets can be organized and used as a means of exploration. We can even use these as ways of understanding productivity and relations of how people interact with those near them. The article states that people believe they are similar to those people that they live near. Patterns of idea flow have been found by the studies. Having workers take breaks at the same time can lower stress and up productivity levels. Overall the article is great at explaining how the data is appropriate for our world and how it can most likely be useful in many cases. Big data seems to overall be beneficial but can bring some issues with it that follow such as personal information breach of trusts between companies and customers. I believe that the responsibility should be placed on the player themselves. It is not the responsibility of the game developer or the company that their players are groping other players. The development team is clearly stuck in the middle between the issue between the two players, but it is clearly out of their hands. The player is the only one responsible for their own behavior because they are the ones controlling their avatar. Preventing such behavior can only land on the shoulders of the player. Just as anyone has the ability to control themselves in person and how they act in public, they also have that same control online. It may seem that the player has more abilities because they are playing online and it is not real life, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take responsibilities for their actions, playing online with other players is just like interacting with them anywhere else.
I don’t believe virtual reality assault should go as far as to be treated as a hate crime, however it should definitely be addressed. Just as online bullying is treated seriously, online assault through virtual reality should be just the same. It may be that the female that was assaulted may have overreacted but she has the right to feel attacked if this was unsettling for her. Women are targets of hate crime because of their gender in reality to this can easily be an extent of that issue. Understanding that we should treat people with respect, even online, is how we are taught throughout our lives but sometimes players don’t feel that way online. It seems that being behind a keyboard gives the assailants more courage to perform these attacks but that doesn’t mean they should be allowed to simply because they aren’t physically assaulting one in reality. Awareness of this issue should be at the front of players’ minds when entering virtual reality because no one should feel personally attacked by things about them they cannot control, such as their gender. Online presence today is such a huge part of everyone’s daily lives in the United States, as well as all over the world, that the impact of shared data online in astronomical. It’s only natural for our president Barack Obama to use such media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and even podcasts to his advantage. Through the use of social media, our president has been able to keep social issues and injustices, as well as his own policies, in ongoing current circulating discussions.
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AuthorMy name is Cristina Cachux, I'm a third year Communications Design major with an emphasis in Web Design. I am also minoring in Computer Science. |