Word Power

Computer Studies?

(1) If you're female, you're going to read this article and feel smug. If you are male, you might feel a desire to use the article to wrap up your old chewing gum or just get annoyed and play a computer game.

(2) According to a recent report, in Britain girls are overtaking boys at school. They are even beating them in subjects such as science and maths, which people used to think were subjects that boys were naturally better at. Surveys show there could be several reasons for this. Boys and girls behave very differently from each other both in and out of school.

(3) In school, statistics show boys mess about more and get into trou­ble more. Admittedly, they put up their hand to answer questions more but they often have the wrong answer. The girls who were interviewed said they often knew the correct answer but didn't like to put up their hand if they weren't absolutely sure. The survey also showed girls spent much longer doing homework and check­ing it with each other. Boys may argue that these things do not make girls more intelligent than boys and in some boys' opinions may even make many girls look like swots. However, these things do show that girls have a different attitude to school than boys. Girls are becoming much more competitive and ambitious.

(4) Experts believe that some boys are spending so much time playing computer games and watching violent films that they are living in a fantasy world. When girls talk about using home computers, they often discuss different types of software that they use for learning. Boys simply talk about computer games. When 14-year-old girls were asked what they would like to do in the future, they men­tioned realistic jobs such as vet, teacher or doctor. The boys' ans­wers were either very vague such as, "I just want to be happy and have lots of money" or unrealistic and they said things such as, "I want to be a fighter pilot." Their answers were considered worry­ing because they did not seem very sensible and did not show any concern about unemployment. However, some people might be­lieve that 14 are too young to worry anyhow. Also, the truth is that the majority of "top jobs" in England are still done by men so many might not see the need to worry. The good news is that after the age of 17, many boys become interested in school again and their exam results show that they have caught up. The problem is just keeping them interested until then...

(5) A lot of knowledge is a dangerous thing for addicts of the Internet. Information is becoming the drug of the new century.

(6) The research, conducted among 1000 managers in Britain, Ameri­ca, Europe and the Far East shows that, as information sources such as the Internet and cable news channels proliferate, we are witnessing the rise of a generation of dataholics.

(7) The quest for information can lead to stress. Almost two-thirds said their leisure time had been curtailed as a result of having to work late to cope with vast amounts of information; 70 % (per cent) reported loss of job satisfaction and tension with colleagues because of in­formation overload.

(8) The study also investigated the habits of the children of 300 man­agers and found 55 % of parents were concerned their chil­dren would become information junkies.

(9) Forty-six % of parents believed their children spent more time on their PCs than interacting with friends. In one case a child had to be wheeled with his computer to the dinner table.

(10) Sue Feldman, mother of Alexander, 13, a self-confessed Inter­net-addict, said she had not yet been forced to wheeling her son and computer to the table, but said she often served him sand­wiches and crisps at his bedroom computer.

(11) Alexander switches on his computer every day when he returns from Latymer School in Hammersmith to his home at Ealing, west London. "I'd confess to spending up to four hours a day on the Internet looking for information and speaking to friends. It's like an addiction," Alexander said.

(12) " If Ican't get on to my computer or the Internet, I do get really frustrated." He spends most of his time finding out the latest infor­mation on pop groups and facts for his homework.

(13) "My parents have to tell me to get off the computer, and they complain a lot, but they also see it as a good thing. Practically everyone in my class has a PC with Internet access so all my friends are also on-line. It's the way forward.";