This device was originally made for men in the army, but as it has progressed over the years, it has become a device that everyone and anyone can use, male or female. Physically, men and women use the product the same. However, psychologically, the product might do more for women than men or vice versa. Most GPS devices use a female computer voice which reads you the directions of where you should go to arrive at your destination (Griggs, 2011). Therefore, it depends on whether or not you are fond of the female voice from the device telling you what to do.
Social
One specific situation comes from male BMW drivers in Germany in the late 1990’s. In-car GPS devices were recalled because men were complaining about the female voice giving them commands (Korbik, 2011). Most GPS devices, including the recent Siri on the newest iPhones include a female voice as the primary voice. Journalist Brandon Griggs explains that “authoritarian or threatening voices tend to be male.” An example is the voice of the computer HAL 9000 in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Here’s an example of what the computer sounds like.
According to Griggs, “The explanation for the dominance of female voices when it comes to GPS can therefore be reduced to a simple formula: male equals evil and dominant whilst female equals submissive and good.” (Griggs, 2011).
Cultural
Most voices on these devices and on other technologies are female. The decision to make these voices female was influenced by scientific studies and psychological research. “Scientific studies have shown that people generally find women’s voices more pleasing than men’s.” (Griggs, 2011). A professor from Stanford University, Clifford Nass, explains this. “It’s much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes… It’s a well-established phenomenon that the human brain is developed to like female voices.” (Griggs, 2011).
Economic
As far as the debate about whether the voice should be male or female, both genders are impacted. The big BMW debate in Germany, caused the GPS devices to be taken out of cars, and encouraged male consumers to no longer purchase GPS systems simply because they didn’t appreciate the female voice giving them directions. This puts a damper on the economy of GPS because one gender refuses to buy the product because of a sexist reason. This can either empower or upset women who either enjoy the female voices on these systems or they feel discriminated against when they hear men are upset about the computer voices. Overall, it is very up and down and it all depends on whether or not you think the gender of the computer-generated voice matters.
Political
Having problems with sexism and gender discrimination against females, BMW in Germany revoked all GPS systems in cars because males complained about the female voices. This causes controversy and an uproar about how women weren’t meant to be in control and how it was unfair that they were the ones giving directions, instead of a male voice.
On another note, an article from the Washington Post discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to restrict police use of GPS tracking, to test how privacy rights are being protected in this technology-based era.
Educational
Without the use of this product, most of us would be lost. Literally. We could definitely survive if we still had to use maps to find our way around, but the use of GPS makes everything much easier and smoother. Technology overall has changed so much over the years and has helped us significantly with not only leisure, but also educational purposes. If we didn’t have GPS it would be very difficult to make maps, which is a large part of what GPS is used for. We also wouldn’t have access to a lot of the scientific research that we have because of GPS systems. Overall, global positioning systems have been a very useful asset to the world and I can only imagine they will continue to get better and become more useful as they develop.
