My Introduction to Computers

I’ve been around computers for much of my life. Around the time I was born, my grandfather started a local internet service provider and computer repair shop in his garage. Eventually he had enough employees that he needed to move to a separate office space, but I still spent much of my time there as a child. My grandpa was my idol at that age, so anything he did, I wanted to do as well. I started designing “masterpieces” in Microsoft Paint at about the age of three.
Three-year-olds are not particularly dextrous, and a small mouse may be difficult for them to handle. My grandpa decided to buy me an Infogrip BIGtrack trackball mouse. This mouse was designed very simply. It had a three inch trackball on top and was marketed toward children and adults with special needs.

The mouse had large buttons, which are perfect for children.

This object itself does not appear to be very gendered. The colors are not particularly masculine or feminine. Even though it was designed for children and those with special needs, it could be used by almost anyone. The one barrier that this does cause is through its price. Today this mouse carries a hefty price tag of $79. I am not completely sure, but I suspect that it also costed more back in the nineties when my grandpa purchased it for me.

Beyond, just making masterpieces on Microsoft Paint, I also used this to play games. The one game I particularly remember playing with this mouse was called “Ariel’s Story Studio”, an interactive storybook game based off of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Video games are often seen as something made for boys, but as this game was based off of a Disney princess story, it was geared towards girls. At this point in my the marketing did not quite have an effect on me. This was a game that my mom had picked out for me because I was in love with Disney. The Disney princesses were more geared towards young girls, but I feel like most all children appreciated them. Another thing to note is that this game was made for children, and it was not as heavily sexualized as most games are today.

Another game I remember playing was Play-Dough Creations. This was a game where kids could create creatures and other objects out of the virtual “Play-Dough” and it would animate them. This game seemed to be much more neutral. There were areas in the game where you could create ugly creatures, baked goods, vehicles, and outfits for Play-Dough people. It almost seems as though the game was trying very hard to keep a balance of features that would interest both boys and girls. I certainly loved making colorful virtual treat and grotesque-looking creatures.

The PC games that I play now seem much more gendered than the ones I grew up with. The physical objects such as the mouth are not what is geared towards men. I still mainly play PC games and I have chosen a small mouse, for comfort reasons. Games I play now are designed with men in mind. Things aren’t as simple as when I played games as a child.

My group questions were posted by Bailey Hulswit.