In with the New and Keeping the Old: What is Digital Humanities?

As someone new to the concept of “digital humanities,” it would be difficult to give a definition to such a broad topic. In a nutshell, it would be easy to group the field into something as simple as “a collection of videos, eBooks, pictures, and files that we can read on our computers.” But digital humanities expands into something broader than what we look at everyday on YouTube or Facebook. It is a vast pool of social interaction that can define what makes up a culture and can bring us closer together than ever before. 

A prime example of this would be in the music industry. Even with the resurgence in vinyl’s popularity, it is still a dated, pre-digital medium. It is a physical analog media that you can actually hold in your hands. The vinyl IS the music. Compare that to today’s compact discs and even mp3 files. Yes, you are holding a tiny disc of music, or using a computer to scroll through songs, but you are not technically HOLDING the work itself. You are holding something that contains bits and bytes that eventually translate into a song. These two types of media could almost be described as a blend of dated analog and modern digital mediums. There is a very definite “real” versus “unreal” feeling here. 

This leads to one question: what IS digital? What can we define as purely digital content? In order for something to be pure, it cannot be have any signs of outside material in it; in this case, the work can’t be created by humans or analog devices in any way. By this definition, only a computer can create a purely digital work, which leads us to the idea of artificial intelligence, a science fiction plot device that is quickly becoming a reality.

As we continue into the future, I believe the field of digital humanities will grow immensely as technological advances come along. It’s almost as though we are in a period of struggle between old and new. Pencil and paper are fading fast with the invention of tablet devices and smartphones. The Internet is quickly taking the place of libraries as a research tool for students. Anything we could want to know about our culture or our world can be learned in seconds thanks to our constantly connected lives.