The Importance of Code
Computer Science is not only a degree not very many people pursue, it is a field of study that people know nothing about, despite the fact that it is affecting their everyday lives.
November 14, 2015
This summer I was fortunate enough to participate in a program called Girls Who Code. During this program, I learned how to code in Python, JavaScript and HTML/CSS. After I had completed the program and returned back to school, I realized how many people had no idea what coding is and to be honest, before I went to this program in Chicago, I didn’t know what coding was either, so I am going to take this time to explain how coding whether you know it or not has some effect on your life.
Coding in basic terms is the instructions given to a computer on how to function. You may have already seen code before and you didn’t even recognize it. Coding can look like a bunch of gibberish just looking at it, but coding produces many familiar applications and products you may not know have code behind them.
Facebook.
Why does Facebook go to your homepage when you click on the word “home”? Code. The code is instructing Facebook to switch to the home page when you click the button “home.”
Instagram.
Why does Instagram “like” a photo when you double tap? The code for Instagram is telling the application to “like” the picture when someone double taps.
Snapchat.
Why does the photo or video post to your story when you click “add to my story”? The code is telling snapchat to take the photo and make it so all the user’s friends can see them.
Now that we’ve established that basically everything on our phone has some line of code behind it, let’s go to bigger products.
Drones.
Even though drones are not attached to your computer, they still have some form of code behind them, which tells them when to take off and change altitudes.
Autonomous Surgical Robots.
These robotic surgery robots are helping doctors perform surgery from other states and even other countries. These robots are changing lives, but that wouldn’t be possible without lines of code telling the robot what to do when the doctor moves the controller.
Basically, coding is all around us. It is in our everyday life and everyone should understand the importance of coding in our lives.
