Digitality
Encyclopedia
Digitality is used to mean the condition of living in a digital culture, derived from Nicholas Negroponte
's book Being Digital
in analogy with modernity
and post-modernity.
Aspects of digitality include near continuous contact with other people through cellphones, near instantaneous look up of information through the World Wide Web
, the third wave information storage where any fragment in a text can be searched and used for categorization, such as through search engine Google
, and communicating through weblogs
and email
. Some of the negative aspects of digitality include computer virus
es, loss of anonymity
and spam
.
In the 1990s scholarship of the effects of interactivity with information began to be written and published, particularly focused on the immediacy and ubiquity of digital communications, the interactivity and participatory nature of digital media, and the role of "shallow" information searches. While in the tradition of Postmodernism
in that they presume a decisive role for media in the formation of personality, culture and social order, they differ fundamentally from the analog critical theory, in that the audience has the ability to do more than create a personal idiolectic text, but instead is able to create new texts which reinforce the behavior of other participants.
One school of thought says that digitality in the 2000s is a separate condition from late 20th century postmodernity
.
Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte is an American architect best known as the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also known as the founder of the One Laptop per Child Association ....
's book Being Digital
Being Digital
Being Digital is a non-fiction book about digital technologies and their possible future by technology author Nicholas Negroponte. It was originally published in January 1995 by Vintage Publishing....
in analogy with modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
and post-modernity.
Aspects of digitality include near continuous contact with other people through cellphones, near instantaneous look up of information through the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
, the third wave information storage where any fragment in a text can be searched and used for categorization, such as through search engine Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, and communicating through weblogs
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
and email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
. Some of the negative aspects of digitality include computer virus
Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
es, loss of anonymity
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
and spam
Spam (electronic)
Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately...
.
In the 1990s scholarship of the effects of interactivity with information began to be written and published, particularly focused on the immediacy and ubiquity of digital communications, the interactivity and participatory nature of digital media, and the role of "shallow" information searches. While in the tradition of Postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
in that they presume a decisive role for media in the formation of personality, culture and social order, they differ fundamentally from the analog critical theory, in that the audience has the ability to do more than create a personal idiolectic text, but instead is able to create new texts which reinforce the behavior of other participants.
One school of thought says that digitality in the 2000s is a separate condition from late 20th century postmodernity
Postmodernity
Postmodernity is generally used to describe the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity...
.
Secondary Meaning
A secondary meaning of digitality relates to the risk characteristics of exotic options. The digitality of an option is the amount of "digital risk" or discontinuity in the payoff profile of an exotic option as the underlying asset price approaches a given barrier level.See also
- Media influenceMedia influenceMedia influence or media effects are used in media studies, psychology, communication theory and sociology to refer to the theories about the ways in which mass media affect how their audiences think and behave....
- 1980s
- 1990s
- 2000s
- DeconstructionDeconstructionDeconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
- PostmodernismPostmodernismPostmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
- InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
- Information ageInformation AgeThe Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
- Critical theoryCritical theoryCritical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
- PostmodernityPostmodernityPostmodernity is generally used to describe the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity...
- ModernityModernityModernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...