Ever since I was a child, I’ve been using text searching without actually realizing it. Google has become synonymous with looking up information, which in fact has become its own phrase to look up information, “Google it”. Text searching, and more importantly, keyword searching changes the way I engage with information in a couple of ways.
For one, when I need to look up information, I have to figure out which keywords are important for the information I’m looking for. When using JSTOR or other library databases for looking up articles, I don’t look up specific information, rather I use a few words that might give the database a general idea of what I want.
Secondly, due to the keyword searching, I don’t always get the exact kinds of articles I need for said information. Instead, I get information from the same resource as many other people. This can create a problem, which has been documented before in Ian Milligan’s article 1, where numerous different people get the same information from one source. This can skew information towards what that one article had to say.
I believe digital projects can create social change, if that’s what the projects intended purpose was in the first place. However, there needs to be a balance of interactivity with the project, good UI to assist the user, and good information to garner interest. However, many projects seem to be ignored by the mass public, which shows that it can be rare for one project to have much effect.
While digital media can increase the ease of gaining information, you lose the ability of many of your senses. For instance, feeling an object can be much more effecting at showing how old it is, or what it’s made of rather than just looking at it. In the case of Tony’s presentation, the nazi coin is something we could feel the difference in, not just see. By losing the ability to sense an object fully, we lose the ability to gain all the information possible from that object.
Citations: Milligan, Ian. “Illusionary Order: Online Databases, Optical Character Recognition, and Canadian History, 1997-2010.” The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 94 no. 4, 2013, pp. 540-569. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/527016.
