#technically wrong

[patrik6090]

It would be traumatizing to see peach and patrik date

[brittle-bone-gabe]

I think the asks and reblogs on my no context art I posted recently is the best thing because some of you are close to guessing what it’s about.

[salygainen]

Or when the only time you have for reading books is when you commute 🙈 Stop what you're doing and go read "Technically wrong" by Sara Wachter-Boettcher! It's awesome!

[raesportfolio]

WNM Blog #8: Sara reminded me I’m gay

I love women.

I like Sara much more than Cass. I’m probably being too familiar, but they’ll never read this, and thus, who cares? What matters here is my point: Sara Wachter-Boettcher is significantly more pleasing than Cass Sunstein – particularly when it comes to making holistic arguments. I say this because although both are white and – seemingly undeniably – upperclass, Sara manages to really capture the idea of inclusivity in tech, and the democracy that comes with it. A point that Cass Sunstein managed to miss throughout practically the entire book. This isn’t to say I didn’t agree with Sunstein just as much as I agree with Wachter-Boettcher, it’s to say that Sara’s arguments appeal to me even more because her points don’t forget I exist. 

In a way, that also has a lot to do with Sunstein’s work: his viewpoint wasn’t aimed towards me and wasn’t something I would have normally sought out because of it, after all, but Sara’s is. I’m rambling and missing the point: Technically Wrong is good, it’s great. It’s easy to read and encompasses some of my main concerns not only within the tech industry but within most of the corporate world I am destined to enter within the next few months. She summarizes and emphasizes all of her main arguments in a way that is practically impossible to misconstrue, and that’s exactly how I like it. Shout out to her.

Now, about what I came here to discuss other than how much I like this book so far. The world of tech is so racist, sexist, and homo-, trans-, and queerphobic, I literally wanted to scream with every example Wachter-Boettcher proposed. Let’s get into two that rankled in particular:

“Take the story of product designer Amélie Lamont, whose manager once claimed she hadn’t seen her in a meeting. ‘You’re so black, you blend into the chair,’ she told her. Or Erica Joy, a black software engineer who wrote that past coworkers had constantly assumed she was a single mom” (17).

and

“... Eve might offer the features Delano wants – it can track her periods and her moods – but it still makes a ton of assumptions about its users, referring them as ‘girls,’ using slang like ‘hookups,’ and describing sex in a way that’s centered entirely on male genitalia: a banana with a condom, a banana without a condom or no banana. If you’re an adult woman in a relationship with anyone who’s not a man [or better put, anyone without a penis], you’re probably still going to feel left out” (31). 

First of all, who the HELL thinks it’s appropriate to tell someone they’re so black they blend into the chairs!? I know damn well Amélie had some color on that wasn’t black, therefore making her f*cking visible! That comment wasn’t just racist, but colorist and UNNECESSARY! Just tell her to speak up more at meetings, thanks! Secondly, y’all still assuming all black women are mothers? And to add onto that, single mothers? For the love of ***, please drop that racist stereotype. I can bring out a list of statistics that will prove you wrong, try me.  Lastly, associating fruit with genitalia is so corny, even teenage me would have deleted that app. That’s not my real critique though – all people who menstruate are not women, nor are they all sexually active with people who have penises – it is all those -phobics I listed earlier to assume so. 

Tech does this all the time, as Wachter-Boettcher makes clear. It’s the default for most apps, the default effect that follows isn’t just people like me (non-binary and queer as hell) not kicking up a fuss about our pronouns, gender identity, and sexual identities not being available and signing up anyway. It’s cishets also not thinking about it, and when presented with us, revolting. It’s cishets feeling like they are the only normal and proceeding to oppress us. Finally, it is cishets feeling like it is their space and their space only, and we’re invading. 

It is the reinforcing of “something most of us already have stuck in the deep bits of our brains… [and it’s] strengthening that association rather than weakening it” (38).We’re not invading any space because we belong there too – because we are normal humans and we use tech the same way as anyone else. Tech has all this ability to make change, and refuses because the people who run it are too busy being secular and looking for “culture fits” instead of new ventures and hires that will help them grow and bring their dreams of “making the world a better place” to fruition. 

This was long but I have feelings and they must be shared. Anyway, Sara Wachter-Boettcher and her writing reminded me exactly why I listen to women and their outlook – and why I love and am attracted to them so much. Imposter syndrome got defeated today.

[driftglazz]

"One of the things that people who make software want to do is pretend they can predict the future, and it's not really about predicting the future, it's about re-inscribing the past. That's what happens if you don't specifically design against it."

- Sara Wachter-Boettcher, author of Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech, from this interview https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pakxby/silicon-valley-is-inserting-its-biases-into-nearly-every-technology-we-use

I've been thinking a lot lately about technology and social media and algorithms, inspired by the book Weapons of Math Destruction and just the general news about the sophistication involved with Russian espionage in US elections but also the whole system of money on/from the internet

[nowlerspeaks]

consider this: mirrorrim :siht redisnoc

O:

[localareamom]

Babysitting for a mom 'friend' and blazing through "Technically Wrong"

[howshouldibegin]

These two kids were whispering to each other about me, with all the subtlety of an elephant, as kids do. I overheard one ask, "is that a boy or a girl?", and the other replied with, "i don't know, both." Excellent, this pleases me.