As a Social Scientist ask yourself “Should I learn to code?” Your answer is probably going to be “Why would I learn to code? Is it going to help me with anything in my field?” This is usually a result of believing coding is only needed in programming or robotics. However, coding is not just technological knowledge related to quantitative data but also qualitative data.
Why Coding is Important in Social Science
The most important thing to realize about learning coding as a social scientist is that it became almost a requirement in every field to know some coding level to be unique and ahead of your peers. Coding became a language for a variety of fields now, thanks to all of them using computers. As computers grew its importance, businesses realized that they had to become aware and implement the necessary programming to keep up with the present opportunities and be ahead of their competitors. As a result, many businesses are now looking for employees who already know coding and programming. Also, any applicant with these qualities looks more favorable for many employers. Therefore, if one wants to stand out and bring a tool that many of their peers will not know about, then learning about coding is the best skill for it.
Another important thing to know is that collecting, analyzing, and searching data became a much faster and easier activity thanks to programming. This allows social scientists to be more at liberty and more creative in their research techniques. They receive their results faster which increases work efficiency and productivity. Furthermore, studying people became much more detailed and comprehensive thanks to the amount of data collected by the programming, giving social scientists a better opportunity to develop a much more in-depth understanding of societies. Thus, even in social science fields, people with a coding background will have an advantage in terms of knowledge, work opportunities, and utilization of current mediums.
Why Social Science is Important in Coding
People within Social Sciences have been learning and improving crucial skills needed in their field without knowing that the same skills are also required in coding. Reading, analyzing, and critical thinking are the base skills needed while writing a code. Social scientists will be lucky because they have been practicing these skills since they started their studies and will be surprised that they are already ahead of many other code-learners as not everyone is a good reader.
Social Science can act as an inspiration for coding. Social Sciences are not only crucial while doing coding but also for what we do coding. Many fields are now using programming, especially concerning collecting data about people from people. Social scientists can observe and suggest how to approach data through keywords, subjects, and cause-effect relations, which, in the end, will build the framework around the programming. Any social data related problem within a program cannot be solved without a look from a liberal arts perspective. These details can mean so much for an encompassing program and can be a cause for discriminatory or incorrect program. Therefore, even though it comes from a different language or uses different tools, social sciences can still be integrated into the language of coding and programming. Because no matter the structure, words are still words with the same meanings behind them.
New Skills, New Dimensions
By combining the skills of social science and coding, a person can become multidimensional in a variety of fields. With technology, a lot of different fields of businesses are now merged and in need of each other. Through computers, coding and programming became a necessary part of researching, cybersecurity, and data collection. On the other hand, no matter how technological the business is, we are always interacting and working with people; thus, without social sciences, it is hard to find the correct ways to approach and deal with subjects related to people. When we combine two of the most important dimensions of our time, we will get the best results both in social and technological sciences. Finally, it is always fun to learn new ways to approach one’s job. Who knows, maybe you will experience and view your job like you never did before.