One of the first things we were asked when we entered the class was to try and define “what it means to be digital”. This question felt like it should have been easy to answer, however the harder I thought about it, the more difficult it became. The word digital is frequently used in this day and age, however defining it felt like a daunting task. During the time the question was asked it felt no one had a clear answer and so I decided to try and find the best answer to that question. My first instinct was to simply look it up through AI as that feels like the easiest way to gather information today. When I used Chatgpt it gave an answer that was long but dodged the main objective. The definition at the end however stated “In short, to be ‘digital’ is to interact with or be shaped by technology that uses binary data (0s and 1s) for processing, storage, and communication, often connected to the internet and modern tech tools”. This felt like a much simpler answer however correct in its ways. In order to go deeper I decided to read up on what other people said rather than AI, in order to come to my own conclusion.
The first article I read discussing what it meant to be digital was on TechTarget, where the definition felt similar to the one given by Chatgpt. To paraphrase the article stated that digital meant to store, generate or process data electronically using the binary data of ones and zeroes. It then went on to speak about how digital things are used and applied in each of our lives everyday. It is used in our phones, computers, TVs, ETC. This helped me to reach a conclusion about what it means to be digital however it also made me realize it is a difficult question to answer no matter what.
After conducting some research I would say that both definitions, both human and AI generated hold truth to them and work together. The first big piece is the binary piece. In both definitions it described the importance of the binary factor being important. This differs from analog which does not use ones and zeroes, and is the main difference between the two it appears. The next part is that it is electronic or technological. Both definitions used one of these words which is why I believe it is important to include. Finally both mentions data and how being digital means that it can process, store and generate data. After doing the research these are the factors I find most important when defining what digital really is. Although the definition does not appear set in stone I believe all these factors play a massive role.
https://www.infoq.com/articles/meaning-being-digital
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