Utopia/dystopia…

Today I posted my last blog. It was really nice to start this journey since I always wanted to start writing a blog. I just never seemed to have the time or the right mood to start one. Thanks to the class ‘Technology Transforming Work’ I had to stop finding excuses and start this blog. When I first got the assignment I was a little bit scared. I have always felt very insecure when I had to show pieces of myself. However, I feel like I am less afraid now and I really enjoyed writing and researching new things through this blog. My last post (at least for now) will give a blinking eye to my first blog. I realize that ‘Can technology change society’ was the starting point for me. The point out of which I got the rest of my inspiration. Therefore, I would like to talk about the images of society again but also robots and their affect on women and work.

A while ago one of my teachers, Sebas told me about the movie ‘Surrogates’. It is a science fiction movie and one that creates perfection for everyone. People do not live as themselves, they are isolated and they interact with others as a surrogate. With the mind, humans can control their surrogate! Through the surrogate they can be who they want to be so everyone lives the life he/she desires. This made me think about my first article. What if people would get the chance to do this now, how would they look like? Would they chose the images society gives us now? I did some research to find out if technology can make this happen in the future. Of course, it can! Saenz (2009) wrote in his article ‘Is surrogates movie getting closer to reality?’ that doctor James Canton thinks it will be possible. Other articles I found also said it will be possible. I started thinking that technology can develop in different ways, this could be one way!

Sebas inspired me to think about other ways technology can develop. I started thinking about different ways and I realize that we cannot predict the future we can only hope that everything will develop into a utopia.  Another future possibility could be robots coming to the workplace. They already are but they take over easy to do jobs. Maybe they will take over higher functions! I really hope this will not happen because I do not like the thought of robots working and humans making robots. I like to see an image in which robots help humans at the work place but not necessarily take over their work. Robots taking over the higher functions would also mean that women would have even more competition. Right now a movement is happening from male to female leaders. I would hate it if robots would make this movement stop.

For me personally, a good future world would not include surrogates but would include robots on the work floor as a helping hand. I would like to see a world in which the female developments continue, a world in which they are put next to men. It is very important to keep in mind that this movement from male to female leaders will not be easy. It requires shifting negative beliefs within the companies, adjustments will have to be made. A lot of people still have the perception and the believe that a woman cannot lead. A woman who will become a leader will have to work hard to make her employees adapt to her leader style. Her style is different from a man’s style and less valued. According to Brief (2014) a female leader will have to persist. She will have to concur a lot of challenges. A cultural change within the company might be needed. Especially in a company where there have always been male leaders, a change of mind-set will be needed. Shell Nederland for example appointed his first female CEO. This will be a big change for Shell since men always ruled and had different ways of leading, plus different values. I do realize that the movements of women to the higher functions can easily be stopped by robots. ‘A world without work’ written by Derek Thompson talks about a future without work. This future scares me the most. John Russo says that when jobs disappear, the cultural cohesion also disappears. I think this world would be a real dystopia for me personally because work gives meaning to people and a purpose in life. What would our purpose be without it? Why would we have to explore our strengths, talents and passions if we do not really need them?

In conclusion, I can only think about what technology will do to the future. Maybe robots will take over control, maybe we will use surrogates but maybe robots will just help us. I just hope that we can be who we want to be and that everyone gets a fair shot on the market. I hope that we will not be defined by our gender, looks or race any more although this might sound as a real utopia…

 

Babylove

Before Christmas I gave you all some general ideas of how technology can help female empowerment. This week I would like to talk about more specific ways of how technology can empower women to get a better career. I got the idea from Marieke. She was curious about how technology can actually help female movements. She inspired me to do some research and with that I became even more passionate about the subject. I became aware that technology can play a big part and maybe be the solution for equal rights.

The first technology I thought of after hearing Marieke’s question was freezing eggs. It sounds crazy but more and more women do it because it actually works. Harrington (2015) states in her article ‘Elective human egg freezing on the rise’ that in vitro fertilization works just as well with frozen eggs as it does with fresh eggs. In the past women had to choose between a family and a career. Because of this technology, women do not have to choose anymore. They can freeze their eggs and focus on their career. Later they can still decide to have children. Srinivas wrote in her article ‘Facebook and Apple to pay for female employees to freeze their eggs’ that companies like Facebook and apple even pay for these measures. This technology can change the future of work for everyone. Because of this women will obtain higher functions since they can choose for a career and a family. They can easily postpone their child wish to build a career. In the end, they can always decide to have or not have children.

I wanted to find other specific technologies that could help female empowerment. However, Google did not help me this time. I could not find any other specific technologies on it. Therefore, I decided to ask other people. I asked my sister and she talked about an indirect way technology can empower women. It is called bednet and it is also related to children. She heard about it a while ago and found it a good initiative and so did I. Therefore, I looked up some more. Bednet is a Flemish initiative for sick children. In the past, children who were sick at home for a long time had to get educated at home by their parents. Most of the time the women had to do this according to my sister. Vandenheuvel confirms this idea in ‘Missing work to care for children‘. He states that 52% of women takes time off of work in a year in comparison to 31% of men. Bednet makes at home school possible. Through a webcam children can follow their classes. This takes a lot of work and stress out of the hands of parents. That way they can focus more on their career. Women do not have to call in sick and therefore miss opportunities. They can continue going to work and make a nice career for themselves.

Bednet can also be used by teenage mothers. They often have a lot on their mind, often they need to raise the child by themselves with the help of their parents. Research shows that 80% of teenage couples who get a child do not get married later. So 80% of the couples break up. However, they also need to go to school. Their parents cannot always help so sometimes they need to stay at home and miss school. That is where bednet comes in. Again, they can get educated at home while taking care of their kid. In general, bednet empowers parents and teenage mothers. Teenage mothers get the chance to get educated and have therefore more future possibilities careerwise.

In conclusion, I found two technologies that can empower women to get a good career. It is not that easy to find specific technologies but I know that there are much more. Sometimes empowerment, can be found in small technological things. It can also influence women in an indirect way like bednet. Can you think of some more specific technologies?

Techpower

This week’s blog topic is about how technology can empower women. Last week I talked about the Girls Leadership Institute and how they helped me come up with the idea to use technology for empowerment. Marieke, a fellow student asked me last week to make it more specific. She wanted to know how technology can empower women. I am very passionate about this topic. Plus, I would love to see how technology can actually empower women. Therefore, I thought is was a good idea to write about it again. So this week’s post is a sequel of last week’s post!

Technology is a way for me to get in connection with others like friends who are overseas and a way to share things, like I am sharing my thoughts through this blog right now. Technology has become an essential part in everyone’s life.  I cannot imagine a life without technology. I think a lot of people are depending on it. I know I cannot live without my laptop. It is so easy for me to search for articles online and talk to friends. Because it already plays a big part in our lives, I think technology will become bigger and will gain more impact in the future.

Yet, there is a big technological divide between genders according to Kanyoro. She wrote in Technology is a women’s human rights issue that some women face inequality because they have less access to technological devices. However, all women have been on the side-lines of the technological revolution. Kanyoro states that men created technology and women are the costumers. This article inspired me to do some research around discrimination in the work field of scientists, engineers et cetera, the founders of technology. I found out that there is indeed a problem in that area. When I look at my friends, I only have male friends studying engineering, not one girl! So, I think in general there are more men working in that area then women. This hypothesis got confirmed by Yoder. He wrote in his paper Engineering by the number that 20 percent of the engineering students are women. That leaves 80 percent to be men. According to a research from Harvard female scientist or scientist students still run against a lot of bias. Because of this a woman’s view is not in technology. Therefore, it is time for women to make tech and to get positions in the engineering work field.

After Marieke’s feedback I realized that there are a lot of ways technology can empower women. So I went on a fieldtrip on google and came across some new things. I came across Ignite, women fueling science and technology. They think that in order to empower women they just need to make sure that women have access to it. They need to learn to use it and create it on their own. As stated before, women need to become engineers. This is exactly what I thought after writing my blog post last week. Ignite has a really interesting website, with lots of articles on it.

Another way technology can empower girls and women is through Internet access. Zelezny-Green wrote in MDGs: how mobile phones can help achieve gender equality in education that when everyone has internet access, girls and women could get educated just by using their phone or the internet. When I need to know something, I can easily find it on the internet. You can find anything on it. You can even learn a new language because of websites like Memrise. Nowadays, in developing countries girls still have to stay at home and help in the household. According to Children in need girls suffer from discrimination in the developing countries. This leads to not becoming educated and being a servant to earn money. They do not get the same chances as boys do. Because of the internet girls would get educated which would result in empowerment. This way they would get the chance to get a good job in the future. In conclusion, girls who do not work now, would be on the market in the future thanks to technology. Internet would enable them to see that life can get better and that they are being mistreated. It might even help them to develop their own personality.

I shared those two general ideas with Marieke. She thought it was very interesting to see how technology has a big impact on a lot of things. She also wants to know more about specific technologies which would have an impact on women in terms of getting a good career. So next blog post topic will be about specific technologies!

In general I feel that technology can empower women just because it is there. Women need to take positions in the technological world to leave their mark. Discrimination is everywhere but it is that much stronger in that world. Therefore, it is really important that women work in that area.  Lastly technology can play a big part in education. I think it will make education possible for everyone.

 

 

Technology as a fight song

One of my teachers sent me a link to an article a while ago. It was an article about girls leadership and the Girls Leadership Institute. I thought it was really interesting to read. Therefore, I contacted them and we shared ideas about empowerment of people and empowerment training sessions. So for this week’s post I collaborated with the Girls Leadership Institute. You might guess it already, this post covers the topic empowerment of women.

The institute focuses on young girls. They try to teach them a variety of skills to stick to their true selves, learn to say no and learn to fail. In short, the institute tries to empower girls. I got inspired by what they do since I think it is great that they actually empower women. I wanted to know how they train girls. Therefore I got in contact with them and asked them how they do it. They feel that emotional intelligence is the base of empowerment because it helps people to gain self- knowledge. Therefore, you grow more empathy towards others. They want to turn girls into new leaders who dare to follow their own path and dare to be who they are, without society telling them how they should act. If you have been reading my previous blog posts, you can probably see a lot of similarities.

I think it is great idea to empower women. Research shows that there are still not a lot of women on top of companies. Most leaders are men while research also has shown that women are good leaders. Most women have a more personal approach in comparison to men. Nowadays employees want that personal touch, they want to be appreciated for what they do. However, the biggest reason why women are better leaders according to the research is that they get things done. So there is no reason why women should not be on the top. The work floor needs female and male leaders. We need diversity so it is very important to give women the chance to develop themselves as a leader.

In general, the institute focuses on young girls and they try to teach them some skills, their parents are also involved. I think the institute is amazing, they have great ideas. However, I think they can do more. They made me think about other ways to empower women. I asked them if they used technology to empower the girls but they do not. This made me do some research in the area (link to the articles you can find all over this post).  I found a lot of articles online, saying that technology is needed to empower people. When you look at the world you can see that technology gains more and more importance. If we want to empower people, I feel we need to teach women how to use technology!

Women’s WorldWide Web stated in the article ‘Information and communication technologies’ that technology will have tons of possibilities for women. It has potential to empower women all over the world. It can finally get women on top of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of women do not have the manufacturers to learn to use technology. Therefore, they still lack technological skills and find it hard to become more empowered. However, one day everyone will probably have full access to technology. The mobile phones usage has been increasing globally and I believe this will keep increasing. In conclusion, we should make technology training sessions available for everyone all over the world. Sessions that will teach everyone how to use technology efficiently. We cannot stop technology so maybe women will be able to get access to the top of companies easier in the future.

“Gender discrimination is the most tolerated violation of rights on earth today. We cannot have an open-ended struggle as far as women are concerned — there has to be an expiration date.” Mlambo

I found this amazing quote from Mlambo. I feel very optimistic about technology and women empowerment. I feel that this is the way to empower the female gend and stop discrimination against women. Since technology is globalizing more and more I believe that every woman will have the manufacturers to learn to use it. I believe and hope that technology will help women to conquer the higher positions.

 

Social mistress(es)!

Today I would like to focus on social media. Most people in our world use it and it has had a big impact on all of our lives. Unfortunately, not in a good way. We are all absorbed with making ourselves look good, we all make sure that the pictures we post are perfect. We want to show off our lives even though the life we create online is not our real life at all. I got inspired to write about social media because of two classmates. They did an inspirational talk about the topic and it was a real eye-opener. I also collaborated with one of my best friends from Belgium. She is a real social media addict, she posts thing of her life every day. We talked about the way her life changed, the good and the bad. She helped me with writing this week’s post! I also came across a lot of interesting YouTube videos, the links are at the end of this post.

“Everything you post on social media impacts your personal brand. How do you want to be known?” Lisa Horn

“Social media turns us into social mistresses, our true self is a dirty little secret.” Jolien

When I go on YouTube and type in ‘social media perfect images’ I come across a lot of videos. Videos explaining how you can make your pictures perfect looking at all times. People Photoshop their pictures, put half naked pictures on the net just so people would notice them. I feel like we live in a world where it is all about image. Everyone wants to be perfect and appreciated. I realize even more that we are afraid to become part of the outcast.

I feel social media has a bad influence on all of us. It definitely does not make me happy! When I go on Facebook and see all these beautiful pictures, I start getting jealous. When I do not go on Facebook, I feel great just with being me. Even research has shown that teenagers nowadays are less happy than in the past because of social media and the thought of having to be perfect. We all desire to be something that we are not. Furthermore, social media has a lot of disadvantages. Do we realize how easy it is for pedophilia to get a young girl or guy? There have been a lot of experiments with teenage girls and boys. Companies also use social media to check on their employees. Companies can even see how someone’s personality is just by looking at what that person likes on Facebook! In conclusion, companies get a lot of power and information because of social media. It is definitely a threat to our privacy!

Sure, social media has some advantages as well. You can keep in touch with people from all over the world. It is an easy way to get in contact with people with the same interests. It can also be used to network professionally. Still, I think the advantages do not make up for all of the disadvantages. I think people would be happier without social media. They would not be as absorbed with the ideas of fitting in and looking perfect.

I made this post to make people more aware of the situation. A lot of people do not think about their actions online, but they definitely should. Social media gives what society wants. We help stereotypes! We all make us look perfect, I think we really need to take a stand and say no to social media and yes to our true selves! We might think we are happy but we are not, we might think we have a lot of friends, but we do not. We are disconnected towards ourselves and others.

“What happens on social media stays on google forever.” Yoursocial

Some great videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipe6CMvW0Dg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMhMVEjEQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRl8EIhrQjQ

 

Virtual reality: A way to change things?

For this week’s blog post I collaborated with my sister. She is a female gamer so she could give me insight of how life is in the gaming world as a woman. She also talked about virtual reality, a new way of gaming for the future. I thought it was very interesting and I decided to do some more research. After my research I realized that this new innovation might be able to give a solution to the problems discussed in my previous blog post!

Virtual reality creates a new universe, a world in our real world. It creates sensory experiences, it will make gaming like a real-life experience (an example). However, VR will not only be used for game-related matters, it can be used in a lot of environments. I found an article about virtual reality in education thanks to one of my fellow students who posted it. The article is called ‘This is the beginning of VR education, and it will only get better’.  There have already been a lot of experiments with virtual reality. Children got a virtual Biology lesson for example. This new technology will change the work floor for teachers immensely. Personally I think VR can have great influences on different working environments. Maybe it will make the work easier and more exciting. Artists for example will also have new possibilities with VR. They will be able to make a virtual world! In conclusion, VR now has possibilities in the gaming world as well as in the artistic, educating and training world.

What does virtual reality mean for society?

I was thinking that VR in the gaming world can be used as a first step to a new and more equal world. Virtual reality could continue the female movements. It could help us achieve a world in which we do not have wrong images anymore. One where we do not want to change ourselves anymore for society.

How is this possible?

We play with perfect looking avatars, avatars that are not represented in  real life. What if we could be the avatars we play with in our games? This could be made possible because of VR. We will put on our VR glasses and go to a new world as ourselves! I think this new innovation could become very popular, which would mean that a lot of people would want it. Right now, most gamers are sitting in their rooms behind their desk. They can say what they want to say to anyone because they are anonymous. They can be whoever they want to be. A lot of gamers lack social skills. Therefore, they do not come out that much and they have wrong images of the world. Using VR in games, people would have to come out of their rooms more, there would be more social contact.

I believe that virtual reality can help us achieve to set things right, to correct the fake images we have in our head. This might be the first step and I believe that other technological innovations could help us create a new movement. However, virtual reality is music of the future, right now there are innovations launching such as augmented reality (an example). This new technology will add things to our real world. Pokémon already has a game launching next year using AR. People will be able to see Pokémons appearing using their phones or iPads, they will be augmented! I would like to know if you can come up with a solution which could help us get rid of those perfect images in a more recent future?

Can technology change society?

When I look at myself, there are two things that really passionate me. The first thing is the position of women in society. The second thing is society giving us images on how we should be. I talked to one of my teachers and we discussed these issues. We also linked them to technology, to the gaming world to be exact. I will make both issues clear in this post and I will show you a link with the gaming world.

A long time ago there were the feminist movements. It can be tracked back to the 14^th century but it only started to become popular in 1968. This revolution gave women more rights. However, we might think that the female movements made us equal to men but that is not the case. A simple example: a lot of companies still do not like to hire women for higher positions since they are scared that they will get pregnant. Women are still seen as the person who has to give birth and who will look after the child.

However, there is another issue going on, an issue that influences everyone in this world. Society gives us images of who we ought to be. Women should be skinny, have big boobs and look beautiful all the time in our Western world. Men should be muscular and cool, definitely not sensitive. A lot of people say that they do not care about these images. But when I look closer, I see that everyone is influenced and tries to belong. Everyone is scared to be a part of the outcast. A lot of women go working out and start diets, while a lot of men go to the gym to get mass. So we help stereotypes, we are all slaves of society, trying to become the thing they want us to be. Society does not only hit women anymore, men also have images to follow.

In one world you can definitely see those stereotypes: the gaming world. It makes it even more clear that women have not gained their equal position next to men in this world yet. Men get in easily in this world, women on the other hand need to be tough. As a woman you often get comments like you cannot game, we will lose now because there is a girl in the team. You need to persist and show that you can game. So women are seen differently. Even when a man is playing with a female avatar, he is treated differently. When I look at the avatars I also see that they have the perfect body. Men are very muscular and women are very thin and have big boobs. However, the body of the male avatars is covered up with armor. This shows that in the gaming world both women and men are portrayed as stereotypes, images of what society wants us to be.

In conclusion, I find that women are still not treated equally. However, society does not only set images for women, they also set them for men. We are all becoming very insecure about ourselves. So what if technology could change the role of women and help equality? What if technology could help us stop following the images of society? Through my blog posts I would like to explore how technology can chance things for everyone relating these topics. I feel that technology can help but it can also become a threat.