I was interested, when reading Elise's post Digital Culture/Humanities, in her ideas on the evolving world of the humanities as we enter a more digitized world. I think she makes some very valid points in ways that our plugged in culture has possibly harmed how we view the humanities. but I think that she may have failed to see some of the ways that the humanities are being illuminated in ways that were never possible before. It amazes me how accessible all information is. It was only recently that you could be discussing a point with friends or family over lunch, come across a piece of disputed or unknown information and instantly have the answer.
Another thing that really amazes me is how connected it has allowed everyone to be (sometimes for better, sometimes for worse). But particularly with the humanities, humanities is all about being able to connect through different mediums and communicate on a large scale through literature, art, etc. With the digital age there are so many incredible ways that we can share ideas. Maybe they are condensed through sites like twitter or blogs, but what matters is that people have the opportunity to share in ways that they never would have been able to when good ole' Herman Melville was writing Moby Dick.
This isn't to say that there are not huge negatives to what is happening with the increasing prevalence of digital culture, but one would be cheating themselves to not realize the incredible possibilities that are there also.
One of the points some literary historians have made is that connectedness has diminished our appreciation of distance -- culturally and historically. And because of that diminished distance, it's sometimes easy, these scholars say, to assume a degree of comprehension we don't truly possess. It's an interesting paradox, really, and I'll be curious to know what you think about it the further we progress with our discussions this semester.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the digital world does allow us to share the humanities in ways that were never possible before. In class Goodreads was mentioned how it provides people the opportunities to share and review the books they are reading. This brought me back to many times where I would read on a blog the books that people would recommend to read and because of that I would go and read a book that I probably would not have read.
ReplyDeleteJust discovered Goodreads from that discussion that we had in class. How have I, as an English major, not known about this gem!
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