The author specifically mentions watching his sister trying to use Twitter. This isn't some broad-brushed sexism leveled against all middle aged, female Internet users.
His evaluation of the new interface is that it makes sense for people that are confounded by the fundamental rituals of Twitter. People like his sister. The article would have made just as much sense if he had written it about his computer illiterate brother.
Sexism abounds in this industry, there are plenty of real offenses to complain about. This just sounds like sour grapes for not getting an invite to the beta.
> This just sounds like sour grapes for not getting an invite to the beta.
That is another issue I had with this article. "I hate that large tech companies manage to completely control the initial discussion of their products by controlling who can see it." How is this unlike any other large company? Car manufacturers allow selected press to test drive new vehicles. Movie studios have showings for movie reviewers well before a general audience. This is a well established business model and calling out a single industry to "grow up" reads as someone who is not in touch with the reality of how a lot of businesses operate and why they do. PR is an established field.
I agree there is sexism in the field. The saying of making software for your mom, however, is not a bad thing. If anything I consider this good, even great. Traditionally technology was considered even more of a man's field than today, with little training or encouragement for women. The trend in older generations is more prevalent, which gives rise to the saying. Yet this idea of targeting that demographic explicitly is wonderful, and why the colloquialism is attempting to fight against the long held technological sexism of older generations. Making software for your mom or grandmother is a realistic attempt at solving the problem of lack of technical training for a gender that was largely ignored by technology a few years ago. People are doing something about the situation and bringing in new users to the latest in tech, opening windows into the rest of the tech world.
However, in the long run, this saying should be phased out as it will soon become more sexist with everyone of any gender having full access and encouragement into technology from a young age.
When people talk about writing software for their mom, it's not sexism. It's age-ism. They're talking about software for their moms because their moms are older, not because their moms are women. I've seen reviewers talk about their dads and grandfathers in the same way.
In my experience, moms are a lot less likely to understand computers than dads. Same with grandparents. There is possibly sexism going on here, but it often has roots in reality.
4 comments
[ 21.1 ms ] story [ 166 ms ] threadHis evaluation of the new interface is that it makes sense for people that are confounded by the fundamental rituals of Twitter. People like his sister. The article would have made just as much sense if he had written it about his computer illiterate brother.
Sexism abounds in this industry, there are plenty of real offenses to complain about. This just sounds like sour grapes for not getting an invite to the beta.
That is another issue I had with this article. "I hate that large tech companies manage to completely control the initial discussion of their products by controlling who can see it." How is this unlike any other large company? Car manufacturers allow selected press to test drive new vehicles. Movie studios have showings for movie reviewers well before a general audience. This is a well established business model and calling out a single industry to "grow up" reads as someone who is not in touch with the reality of how a lot of businesses operate and why they do. PR is an established field.
I agree there is sexism in the field. The saying of making software for your mom, however, is not a bad thing. If anything I consider this good, even great. Traditionally technology was considered even more of a man's field than today, with little training or encouragement for women. The trend in older generations is more prevalent, which gives rise to the saying. Yet this idea of targeting that demographic explicitly is wonderful, and why the colloquialism is attempting to fight against the long held technological sexism of older generations. Making software for your mom or grandmother is a realistic attempt at solving the problem of lack of technical training for a gender that was largely ignored by technology a few years ago. People are doing something about the situation and bringing in new users to the latest in tech, opening windows into the rest of the tech world.
However, in the long run, this saying should be phased out as it will soon become more sexist with everyone of any gender having full access and encouragement into technology from a young age.