Prompt 1. – App Market

Prompt 1. – App Market

The current era has been highly associated with advancement in technology in different sectors across the world. Digital media and the internet are some of these advancements that have been experienced and have led to the growth of the app market. The app market is a platform established by smartphone developers such as iPhone or Android to enable interactive designers and inventors to develop an app that serves an international purpose. I must say this experience has impacted my life from almost all angels because of the significant benefits it offers. Since the invention of different mobile applications such as Amazon, Uber, McDonald, Twitter, Instagram, Gymtrainer, and many other apps that are supported on smartphones, the ways of operations have received enormous changes. For instance, going to work every day might have always been one of my biggest challenges because I had to catch two buses before arriving at my workplace. Apart from having to wake up earlier to make breakfast, do some cleaning, and leave in time to catch the coaches so that I can arrive on time, the entire day at work was frustrating because I was already tired.

And what was even more depressing is coming home in the evening after a long day in the office and having to cook again before going through the same routine the following day. However, all this industrious cycle was broken with the introduction of several applications that made my operations more fast, efficient, and reliable. Now, instead of waking up early to make time for what I ought to do before I leave, I wake up and request a ride to work, which is often two to five minutes away using my phone. Even though there might be little changes in pricing, its efficiency is reliable and better services at different prices based on one’s capabilities. Also, cooking nowadays is not a big problem because the food of my choice is delivered to my doorstep in a few minutes after requesting it using its app.

Prompt 2  – “Programmed Inequality,”

One of the fascinating things I have learned from Mar Hicks’ talk was the origin of computing work. I mean, the discussion opened my eyes to seeing the early pioneers of computer work and their impact on the sector. Through Hicks’ talk, Programmed Inequality, I understood that women were the pioneers of computing; however, society and many governments have been structured on gendered technocracy and labor feminization. Britain was the leading country in electronic computing in 1944, but in the span of the next thirty years, the computer industry had become extinct. The country hobbled its transition into the information age because of its poor management of their technical labor, considering that the state was also struggling to utilize technology to maintain its international dominance.  As they were mostly made up of women, the British government systematically neglected the most significant portion of its well-trained technical labor, and this contributed significantly to its demise. From World War II to around the 1960s, women facilitated the enormous high tech growth silently. But from the 1960s and 70s, computer work was gender-flipped, and it became male-centered work, which caused the shift of labor challenges to structural problems. Moreover, discrimination based on gender did the civil service and sprawling public sector to take a drastic measure that was severe both to the computing sector and the entire state. Britain experienced major macroeconomic blowouts after eliminating women from the computing industry, and the US is probably to suffer the same fate in the 21st century. This is because the guarantee of women rising to the notch of science and technology is not only grounded to possessing technical skills. After learning this, I think all the postindustrial superpowers have to learn an essential lesson from Britain and utilize it to save their economies. Women are the pillars of computer work, and even though it might require a lot of effort to restore them in the industry, the growth of a state’s economy depends on it.