#93: Digital Footprints

Now, more than ever, every one of us leaves footprints. Not just in the sand, grass, or dirt — but on platforms everywhere. Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress.com, and a plethora of other social platforms contain messages outlining our excesses, wonderings, and frustrations. Collectively, these outbursts represent the entirety of human thought. The platforms themselves are, to some, the pinnacle of invention. To others, they’re loathsome enablers that distribute meaningless noise at an unprecedented rate.

But one truth remains: everybody uses these tools. Only a small portion of these communications are valuable to scholars looking to quantify and measure our behavior. Today, we host friend of the network, scholar, and educator, Will Farina. Over the last year, Will has slowly exposed your hosts to his work in the constantly expanding field of Digital Humanities: a field of study that exists to extract value from our many footprints (online and off).

The field of Digital Humanities is always expanding for a reason: as we generate increasing amounts of content, how can academic workers separate valuable resources from the dross?