Fundamental Change Response
¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 1 If you were to ask any twenty random people, who at some level knew what digital humanities was, you would get twenty different definitions. Digital humanities is a rather broad subject, and maybe that is why there will never be a definitive definition. People can speculate all they want about what the DH should be. Because it is on such a large spectrum, it is hard to pin point an exact definition. With so many people involved in trying to come up with a definition, they may never agree on one together.
¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 1 With so many people out there offering their own opinion on what the digital humanities is, it may not be surprising that there is already a definition out there. Somebody just hasn’t combined all of the answers to create one simple explanation for what the digital humanities are. Maybe, the DH is so vast that there are people spread out along the spectrum and only stick to that particular spot, who don’t see how the other parts of the spectrum could benefit others or themselves.
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 1 The DH can allow people to think outside of their sphere and venture into unknown territory. There is a flexibility that comes with digital humanities. You can go outside your area of study and still be a called a digital humanist. There is no limit to what the digital humanities can do; every year new technology is made that will lengthen the spectrum and continue to invite more and more people to join. This change, or addition of new technology, may change the definition of digital humanities. We don’t know yet what this new technology will be and therefore we cannot think of a definition for it. Perhaps this is why there will never be a complete definition for what the digital humanities is.
You make a good point here about the twenty different definitions. As we saw in our reading, defining digital humanities leads to a plethora of different definitions, and while some of them were not so serious, even the ones that were serious were widely varied. I believe that is the beauty and the shortcoming of digital humanities, is that it is so broad a field that there is no one true definition. The methods and topics possible in DH research are broad enough that searching for one exact definition is pointless. As long as there is a definition that is close enough, I believe people should focus less on the defining of DH, and more on the doing.