The feminizing of computing

Bob Matsuoka, writing over on David Strom’s excellent Web Informant blog, hails the Age if the iPhone.

The iPhone is not a phone, its the first generation of a new type of computing device.  One that will change how we view computing.  One that will make our lives simpler. We won’t have to learn how to use applications, we’ll just use them.  We won’t worry about launching applications, saving files, quitting — just using.  Every other smartphone is still based on an archaic, cumbersome, paradigm taken straight from desktop computers. Drop-down/pop-up menus, programs, files — ugh.  Look how bad Windows Mobile is, and most of us are used to the real Windows on our desktops. Why should a phone take minutes to just turn on? The alternatives are not much better.  Mobile OSX, what runs inside the iPhone however, is a whole new beast.  Intuitive, responsive, and an extension of the beautiful hardware that it runs on. 

We have have heard this all before (cue the Apple Newton),  but I think he may be right. The current trend is way from  self-referential computing or computing for its own sake (tweaking, fixing, maintaining)  towards truly productive computing, or computers as simple tools that merely function.

At least that is what I think is happening.  But why?  It may actually be caused by the feminizing of computing.

In the field of cognitive neuroscience their is near consensus that there is a big difference between the basic cognitive style of the classic “female” brain and the classic “male” brain.

The “male” brain - which about 85% of men have, is better at systemising whereas the “female” brain is superior at empathising.  

Systemising is the drive to analyse and explore a system, to extract underlying rules that govern the behaviour of a system; and the drive to construct systems. The systemiser intuitively figures out how things work, or what the underlying rules are controlling a system. Systems can be as varied as a pond, a vehicle, a computer, a maths equation, or even an army unit. They all operate on inputs and deliver outputs, using rules.

According to this theory, a person (whether male or female) has a particular “brain type”. There are three common brain types: for some individuals, empathising is stronger than systemising. This is called the female brain, or a brain of type E. For other individuals, systemising is stronger than empathising. This is called the male brain, or a brain of type S. Yet other individuals are equally strong in their systemising and empathising. This is called the “balanced brain”, or a brain of type B.

A key feature of this theory is that your sex cannot tell you which type of brain you have. Not all men have the male brain, and not all women have the female brain. The central claim of this new theory is only that on average, more males than females have a brain of type S, and more females than males have a brain of type E.

…And we all have anecdotal impressions about typical hobbies for men and women. Men are more likely to spend hours happily engaged in car or motorbike maintenance, light aircraft piloting, sailing, bird- or trainspotting, mathematics, tweaking their sound systems, computer games and programming. Women are more likely to spend hours happily engaged in coffee mornings or pot-luck suppers, advising friends on relationship problems, or caring for friends, neighbours, or pets.

How does this relate to iPhones and the feminizing of computing? Well as women have grown as a market force and computer user base the last 15 years, there has been a growing demand for computers that just work - hence the appeal of the Mac.

The “female” brain is happy with the black box phenomenon. They do not care about its inner working, operating rules and structures, they just want it to do its job - letting them get on with their work, or empathising.  

Perhaps the market is starting to respond to this demand? And it is not just people with “female” brains who want “just works” technology.

The GTD/Productivity community is also rebelling against the over-featured “systems” that distract us away from real work.

For those of us with ”male” brains, instead of working on our tasks, we are working on our task list software. Instead of using our computers as tools, we accrue tools to use on our computers.  Those “female” brained people are meanwhile using these tools as…well…tools. More power to them, bring on the Age of the iPhone!

 Age Of The iPhone « David Strom’s Web Informant