July 2020 by Holly Bullis
Technology has increasingly become part of our everyday lives. In 2019 Pew research center estimated that around 90% of American’s had a cell phone and 80% use the internet.
Not only is technology in all our gadgets: our computers, phones, tablets and TVs it is also used to design these gadgets. Products that are high tech and low tech alike are each influenced by technology either in how they are designed or how they are sold.
All of this means that technology is an everyday fixture in all our lives and odds are its here to stay.
Technology is a blanket term that today refers to things like computers and TVs, things that use electricity and perform a wide range of tasks. To perform these tasks, each technological gadget has its own internal instructions. Your TV has built in instructions saying that if the power button is pressed then the TV should perform the startup processes.
Those instructions are what we call software. Software can be thought of as a list of many instructions. Your TV’s software is comprised of instructions on how to turn on, turn off, and navigate between channels when the appropriate buttons are pressed. The instructions in your cell phone and computer operate with much the same structure: If this happens then do this.
These instructions that make up software are written with code. Code is just a way that humans communicate with computers. Code can be written in different computer languages, much the same way that hello can be written in many human languages. Examples of coding languages are: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Python.
These things together, the code that makes up the software and the software that instructs the piece of technology, create a seamlessly functioning computer, cell phone or TV. Each of these things is made, influenced, and used by people.
Majority of people employed to create technology are white or Asian men in the millennial generation. Google, one of Silicon valley’s leaders in diversity, reported that 9% of their workforce identify as Black or Latinx while 92% identify as white or Asian. This is an improvement from 2014 when only 7% of Google employees identified as Black or Latinx.
A survey by popular hiring website Indeed.com found that people over 40 only make up 26% of the workforce in the tech industry.
A lack of representation within the tech industry can lead to major problems for a diverse group of technology users. Like black faces being mislabeled or not even recognized at all by facial recognition software. Technology’s overarching focus on younger users also overlooks the needs of older users.
An oversaturation in the tech market means emerging technology companies are being forced to try new strategies to differentiate themselves. One strategy is better customer support.
Well established big tech companies are following Google’s lead to try to acknowledge their lack of diversity and move past it. Many major tech companies now have diversity officers in their HR departments.
For the average American tech user, this means that now more than ever you deserve technology that recognizes and serves you.
It means that the tech industry is starting to listen to underrepresented people and that knowing more about technology can help us steer technology on a path that benefits us.
Tech companies are hiring more User Success and Customer Success positions. They are providing chat and email opportunities for users to voice their confusion or frustration and they are adapting to the needs of their users.
This doesn’t mean that you need to get out there and get a job as a software engineer. (Although, if you want to do that more power to you!) This means that simple knowledge will help you ask the right questions, understand better what software can do and help with meaningful change.