{"id":10938,"date":"2020-10-11T17:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialpanic.org\/?p=10938"},"modified":"2026-06-09T09:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:16:42","slug":"intentional-ageism-in-tech-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2020\/10\/11\/intentional-ageism-in-tech-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Intentional ageism in tech media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I stopped reading Ars Technica when I reached the last 5 words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The distinction between a program and an API makes intuitive sense to computer programmers who&nbsp;regularly use APIs (and write programs) in their daily work. But it&#8217;s far from obvious to Supreme Court justices, all of whom are lawyers <strong>over the age of 50.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2020\/10\/googles-supreme-court-faceoff-with-oracle-was-a-disaster-for-google\/\">Google\u2019s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google | Ars Technica<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What does age have to do with this? What a stupid thing to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Update<\/strong>: I contacted the author of that and he responded that while some older people are tech savvy, most older people are not tech savvy. That&#8217;s his assertion and his entire defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I noted I have a BS in computer science (1980), an MBA (2001), an MS in software engineering (2012, thesis on Android power management), two patents (one in wireless communications and one in aviation, from two years ago), and have written a dozen tech books. I will not quote his private email directly but suffice to say, he argues it is appropriate to assume that older people are not tech savvy. Do the math and you can readily see my age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s rewrite that sentence to see the implicit bias of Ars Technica &#8211; for example, if written as &#8220;But it&#8217;s far from obvious&#8230;<em>all of whom are lawyers who are <strong>women<\/strong><\/em>&#8221; or &#8220;But it&#8217;s far from obvious&#8230;<em>all of whom are lawyers who are <strong>white<\/strong>&#8220;.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bias in these examples is obvious just as it is obvious in the irrelevant age reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve deleted bookmarks to Ars Technica. I do not make a habit of reading news services that promote the -isms: racism, sexism, ageism, ethnocentrism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bias in media reporting: &#8220;But it&#8217;s far from obvious to Supreme Court justices, all of whom are lawyers <b><i>over the age of 50.<\/i><\/b>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Age has no relevance in the argument except in the mind of the reporter who somehow thinks age is relevant to one&#8217;s tech understanding. Click in to read about my age and qualifications in tech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17,362,28,29,30,352,33,39,40,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-rights","category-facts","category-gen-z","category-logical-fallacy","category-media","category-media-propaganda","category-misinformation","category-name-calling","category-fake-news","category-fictional-news","category-stupidity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20837,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10938\/revisions\/20837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}