When we look up what the word digital means in a dictionary we get “involving or relating to the use of computer technology” but as we read Doug Eyman’s section on digital we get a glimpse of the deeper meaning behind the word digital.
In the article Defining and locating Digital Rhetoric by Doug Eyman compares the difference between analog technologies and digital technologies. Analog technologies rely on proportion, resemblance, and similarities. Whereas digital technologies work based on coded differences, and can include non-computer based systems like writing, braille and morse code.
In the article, Ana Haas can agree with this as she states “Digital also refers to our fingers, our digits, one of the primary ways . . . through which we make sense of the world and with which we write into the world. All writing is digital: digitalis in Latin, means “of or relating to the fingers or toes” or “a coding of information.” . She then gives us examples of ancient times where they used their fingers as codes and forms of communication. Some examples she gave were Mesopotamian Cuneiform, Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs, Chinese logograms, and Aztec codices.
The word digital and the importance
It was interesting to see that other people can agree with Eyman regarding the meaning behind the word digital. For the longest time I always thought that the word digital always meant computer based knowledge or doing something digitally. It was very interesting to find out that the word digital actually serves a bigger purpose and can connect all the way back to historical times. For example, I never thought of writing as digital and certainly not the mayan hieroglyphs or the chinese logograms. After reading this article, it can help us get a deeper understanding of how this word doesn’t necessarily mean technology or computerized. Also we learn of how the word digital came from the past and started with ancient practice of encoding and language.
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