The next time you send an e-mail to your family, plan a vacation online, or send a photo of your newborn to your parents, you may want to tip your hat to technology. Technology, and its use, is an integral part of our everyday lives. It is so pervasive, we would be hard-pressed to live in a world without it.
When Sandra Johnson was young, she thought an engineer was a person who drove a train. A few years later, she became the first black woman in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Now a Chief Technology Officer and Senior Technical Staff Member for IBM’s Systems & Technology Group, Dr. Johnson believes it is imperative for black families to incorporate technology into their daily lives. “There are any number of reasons blacks can’t live without technology,” Dr. Johnson says. Here are her top five:
1) Technology Levels the Playing Field: From small and medium-size businesses to visual, literary and recording artists, to information dissemination-technology brings the world to our fingertips. This offers a special advantage to members of the black community who have traditionally encountered obstacles to success in...