I was pretty nervous to take this class because my strengths do not include technology or math. Coding requires both! However, I have been pleasantly surprised. I am coding and enjoying it! Now I understand my computer more fully and the impact technology has on the humanities.
Learning about My Computer
I had no idea you could do so much with your computer because I assumed that my Windows interface held all its features. I did not question it, and the majority of the time, people interact with technology in this way. For me, I never felt inclined to investigate coding because it always seemed too hard. After all, hackers in tv shows often have multiple screens with computer languages on them that might as well be foreign. Even when learning about technology, we are taught about how to use it regarding programs like Word or pdf or email. The focus is never on efficiency. Education simply focuses on necessity when teaching technology since it drives much of our world. However, this concept is slowly starting to change for me.
Gitbash and Virtual Studio Code
The more I learn how to use Gitbash and Virtual Studio Code (VS Code), the more I realize that computers hide features under the surface that most people do not understand or notice. I had never heard of Gitbash or VS Code before a couple months ago. Sure, I may not be doing crazy things, but fiddling around in Gitbash and VS Code has made me feel like a hacker. Not only have I learned how to navigate, create, and delete files in Gitbash, I also learned that VS Code can be used to create webpages. I was even able to play around with webpage formatting. As a result, I have come to realize that computers can be used for so much more than what is originally installed in Windows. Their mystery is fading.
Computers and the Humanities
Transcribing Manuscripts
I always viewed computers as a detriment to the humanities. Although computers do spread information, they erase physical copies of books and manuscripts. Now I understand that making manuscripts digital, like Thoreau’s, can actually assist researchers in understanding documents. When I worked on transcribing manuscripts on Douglass Day, I played around with the toggles to adjust the zoom and brightness of documents. Without those features, I wouldn’t have been able to complete transcribing certain documents. In addition, online documents allow more people to help with humanities’s projects. It helps to get the word out about it. On Douglass Day the site was crashing due to so many people trying to transcribe on it!
Website Creation
In addition, coding allows people to create websites. For one thing, if writers are able to code themselves, they can present their work on a website in the way they wish to present it, instead of relying on others to execute their vision. This gives more artistic freedom to writers while allowing them to spread the word on their projects. Again, it also makes it so that more people can find and contribute to humanities’ projects like the zooniverse.org website, which collects data for projects, ranging from the sciences to the humanities.
Disadvantages
Despite the advantages, using technology in the humanities does cause some harm. For one thing, when people write using computers, their editing is not captured. Decisions about word choice or sentence and paragraph placement are simply lost. This thought process is intruiging to researchers because it provides insight into writers’ minds. How do they work? How do they edit? How do they think? Unfortunately, technology makes it more difficult to examine modern writers.
Why Is This Important?
Learning about the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the humanities is helpful to me because in the future I want to write. I am still figuring out what exactly I would like to focus on, but in this instance, the subject does not matter since technology has penetrated the humanities and will continue to do so. Thus, learning about technology in the humanities is pertinent to my future field. Who knows? Perhaps one day I can create a website for my creative writing!
Conclusion
In the end, learning to understand my computer more fully and to appreciate the impact it has on the field of humanities has helped me to realize that technology is not always bad. Like everything else, there is a time and a place for technology in the humanities. For one thing, it enables researchers to study manuscripts that were too difficult to read before, gathering valuable information. In addition, learning how to code your own website is important so that your projects are seen by more people! So, technology is valuable to the humanities in certain areas.