Men, Women and Technology.

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moonbit

Senior member
Dec 15, 2006
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Originally posted by: NanoStuff
Socially correct theory, but it's wrong. There are substantial biological differences between male and female brains. Most apparent is the size difference, significantly smaller in females and different wiring tendencies, such that give females certain spacial awareness advantages, and give males very substantial advantages in inventiveness.

Much like intelligence differences between races, intelligence differences between sexes also exist. Different priorities in natural selection. It seems to work, so be it.

Could you possibly provide evidence of this information, like a link or name of a study or an article? From what I understand, there is more differences within groups than between groups - bigger differences in intelligence comparing males to males/females to females than comparing males to females. The differences in brain structure only impact how information is processed, not overall intelligence.

Plus, it has not yet been determined whether differences in different cognitive abilities is due to biology or environment. This goes for races as well as genders.

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Then if they see TV as they get older, they get ads - all the ads showing happy boys have them playing with GI Joes or something of the sort, so that's what the viewers "think" they want, too. Likewise, girls see happy girls playing with those goddamn overpriced Bratz things, and they "want" these tickets to happiness too.

It's funny you mention this, because the best I can remember, my parents never limited what they would buy me in terms of toys, I only had to ask (not that I would get it *right away* I wasn't spoiled :p). But as badly as I wanted all the He-Man action figures, I never asked my parents because I thought they were "boy toys."

I guess I have to blame the TV. :( I want to throw the damned thing out when I have children because I don't want them to be brainwashed into becoming little materialistic monsters.
 

NanoStuff

Banned
Mar 23, 2006
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Originally posted by: jersiq
I had thought there were studies that had shown that Males were better at spatial perception, hence they were able to learn abstract subjects much easier.

Mostly yes, that's why I said some :) Females are better able to detect changes in an environment, probably something to do with memory. In many other cases males have an advantage here too.

Originally posted by: jersiq
Could you possibly provide evidence of this information

There's more of it out there than I can possibly keep track of.

Wikipedia is a good place to start, but some of the information seems somewhat old and stale, much like the racial differences page, which doesn't have certain more recent studies. Can't blame em, hard to keep track of it all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_intelligence
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
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Originally posted by: irishScott
Ummmm... I'm pretty sure I had tons of fun playing with my Beast Wars Transformers, Power Ranger Zords, Hot Wheels Cars, and Star Wars Action Fleet. I also thoroughly enjoyed Legos and K'Nex.

I honestly enjoyed them.

I also had fun with my sister's barbie collection every now and then (more out of curiosity than anything else).

I don't remember fabricating anything to "look" like I was having fun.
I put "think" in quotes, because yes, the children genuinely believe they are having fun, just as they believe that something tastes better because it's in a McDonald's wrapper. (There was a study on that. Food wrapped in McDonald's-labeled paper received considerably higher ratings for taste than the same food wrapped in plain white paper.)
That's the point I was making there. The kids might otherwise not have fun with certain toys until they're told in some fashion, for instance by seeing an example of "proper" behavior in a commercial on TV, that said toy is in fact fun.
Some of my favorite toys as a kid were motors, capacitors, and solar cells. Capacitors were especially amusing - charge up a whole bunch of 16V 10000uF caps, individually, with just a 9V battery, then hook them in series, and discharge. I loved blasting out little craters into various metal things. :D


Originally posted by: moonbit
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Then if they see TV as they get older, they get ads - all the ads showing happy boys have them playing with GI Joes or something of the sort, so that's what the viewers "think" they want, too. Likewise, girls see happy girls playing with those goddamn overpriced Bratz things, and they "want" these tickets to happiness too.

It's funny you mention this, because the best I can remember, my parents never limited what they would buy me in terms of toys, I only had to ask (not that I would get it *right away* I wasn't spoiled :p). But as badly as I wanted all the He-Man action figures, I never asked my parents because I thought they were "boy toys."

I guess I have to blame the TV. :( I want to throw the damned thing out when I have children because I don't want them to be brainwashed into becoming little materialistic monsters.
I was usually limited by cost. All the fun toys (sciency-stuff) were too expensive. Really, they were too - the markup on some of those things is crazy. I guess they figure that only children of well-off parents will want to spend money on educational toys.
I did get some stuff free though. My uncle once came upon a bunch of strong ceramic magnets - rectangular ones, maybe 1x2x.375". Strong things, too. I got several blood blisters before I learned how to handle them right.
A model train transformer was also great - I'd connect one end to part of a file, and run a wire from the other terminal along the rough part of the file. Sparkly! :D

I never had or wanted GI Joes, Ninja Turtles, Power Ranges, He-Man, and whatever the heck else was out there at the time.


TV - yes, if you let the TV raise your kids, they'll turn into what the advertisers want them to be: compulsive consumers who believe that whoever dies with the most stuff wins. Ultimately, it falls back on the parents - they don't have to buy the kids every little thing they see on TV. It's a great time to teach them about how advertising works. Of course it looks great in the commercial - they want your money, and you're not going to pay for something that's junk. They want you to believe that the thing they're selling will make you happy, because then you will give them money, and that is ultimately all they want: more money. Your money.



 

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
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This reminds me of a personal gripe of mine. I don't like themeparks. I especially don't like disney. It's the feeling of 1984, being told that this is "The happiest place on earth" therefore you must be happy here.

[If you haven't read 1984 by George Orwell, go read it now]
 

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
0
0
So back on topic.

Personally I know no tech girls, there where none in my A level computing course.

I know one friend who is sortof into games [Nintendo dosen't really count :p] and anime and another who is into games, comics, anime, starwars and D&D.

In my experience girls arn't generally into FPS's, more likely RPG's. Does anyone experience go againts this? speak up ! :)

Is this because of the aggresive tendencies which we [men in particular as the stronger, more athletic hunters] have evloved with? Instead of hunting deer we frag noobs?


Q, Pleased to see his 1st rated topic.
 

moonbit

Senior member
Dec 15, 2006
640
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Originally posted by: QUOTH
So back on topic.

Personally I know no tech girls, there where none in my A level computing course.

I know one friend who is sortof into games [Nintendo dosen't really count :p] and anime and another who is into games, comics, anime, starwars and D&D.

In my experience girls arn't generally into FPS's, more likely RPG's. Does anyone experience go againts this? speak up ! :)

Is this because of the aggresive tendencies which we [men in particular as the stronger, more athletic hunters] have evloved with? Instead of hunting deer we frag noobs?


Q, Pleased to see his 1st rated topic.

Well, I would call myself a "tech girl," but other than that, I don't know how to categorize myself.

My familiarity with computers comes more from experience than from any sort of study. My dad bought our first PC (or IBM clones as they were called way back then) in 1989, and I've always lived with a computer since then. I've internalized the quirky workings of PC/Windows software & machines, so I'm fairly proficient with them. I got into hardware four years ago, and have built two computers since. But I drew the line at learning any sort of programming/coding, because I wanted to save the space in my brain for information related to my career. I don't really understand the finer details of how hardware works, and don't want to put the energy into trying to.

I'm a little into games. I've followed the evolution of games from text-based to the first FSPs, and started falling behind from there. I wonder if I got my taste in games from my dad. When it came to console games, I was pretty open (well, I didn't care much for sports games), but I liked the RPGs more because they were more elaborate. For computer games, my dad stuck mostly to RPGs, strategy, and simulation. The only FPS-type game I remember having was Heretic, which I liked to play when I was grumpy and wanted to blow off some steam. ;)

Now I prefer RPG-type games for two main reasons: I'm a sucker for any sort of story, and stuff. I love collecting stuff/treasure/artifacts/weapons/armor/whatever in a game. I have no idea what that's about, but RPGs seem to offer the best variety of stuff. Also at this point in my life, I prefer simpler, linear games. I thought about getting Oblivion after building my latest computer, but when I found out how open-ended it is, I decided not to. I just don't want to put that much into a game anymore.

That's me, one non-standard American female. ;)
 

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
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Originally posted by: moonbitThe only FPS-type game I remember having was Heretic, which I liked to play when I was grumpy and wanted to blow off some steam. ;)

I remember drowning Lara Croft, or dropping a skater awkwardly onto concrete. Good times :)

Stuff collecting? What about horror survival! A subtle blend of puzzles and horrific violence :)