WHY GIRLS FIND COMPUTERS UNINTERESTING
(A philosophical story by the most famous alert box girl ever)
Hmm. I consider this to be the most difficult task I have ever
had to perform. It is not quite simple to approach this problem,
but I will try to do so anyway.
Probably, most girls do not have the urge to explore as much as
boys have; a boy takes apart his toys, wandering what might be
inside, or what may be the secret behind the moving of his
electric train, but a girl seeks to see deeper meanings behind
emotions rather than in a technical sense. This is present very
deep in the inside of boys and girls, and probably has its roots
in the traditional pattern of males and females (no, I am no
feminist, so sit back and read on). Girls are in the first place
not confronted a lot with technical matters - you must have heard
from "the man's job", haven't you? Girls cannot replace a defect
light bulb because they would probably get a high voltage shock.
"Come on, let daddie do it." Is this a high concern of the male
population to protect their precious females from the hazards of
electricity, or is it just considering males to be superior?
Once having experiences cases like this a multitude of times,
girls tend to be a bit afraid of doing anything that might
remotely be technical. Logically that they also shrink back from
computers - can you imagine anything being more technical than a
computer? It's something scary, addictive, unpersonal, with
bleeps and blobs and blurry statements of which' meaning normal
people cannot get hold (jargon, so to say). Where to start?
Girls are probably more into feeling and the emotional side of
life, where boys are computing all the time and doing other
things that I just consider to be quite weird. It might be a fact
that women are more intiutive (it's being said that we have a
sixth sense) and think in terms of feeling and emotion a lot more
than men. And if you can think of a device thinkable that is less
emotional than a computer (again), you have just won yourself a
bonus!
Women tend to defend, to be a bit scared of unknown adventures
(like finding out what computer are really all about). OK, we
like something else for a change, but it doesn't have to be
completely different. Maybe that's because men are a bit less
responsible in their acting, because they always barge into
something new without thinking a minute about it. This doesn't
necessarily mean that ALL men are irresponsible dudes and that
all women just like to be sitting in front of the fire knitting
baby-stockings: There are exceptions, of course, but I think most
women feel like I have stated earlier. And that's probably the
reason why girls find computers rather uninteresting. After all,
there's a great difference between people and things. I prefer
people.
Fortunately, I like Richard, and that's an adventure, too. I
don't spend my evenings knitting in front of the fire, that's for
sure!
In next ST NEWS issues, I might write something more. About men
and feelings, about.....you name it. Keep your females happy and
never put them behind in a computer!
Love,
Willeke
P.S. If you have experienced problems of any kind (especially
with regard to feelings and the usual girlish stuff), you
can always contact me through the correspondence address.
Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
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