Growing up, the term of “digital media” was almost non-existent in our vocabulary. It was one of those “futuristic” words that we thought we would have like in year 2094, along with the jet packs, gravity-defying boots, and flying cars that run on water. However, digital media, that word came to us a bit sooner than expected. Now it is everywhere. It used to be a commodity, now it is considered a necessity. It is how we get around, our means of communication. Now it is everywhere, in the images and noises that we face everyday, but was is digital media exactly?
It is easier to understand after you break it down some. According to the dictionary, “media” is actually short for the word “medium”. It is the tool, channel, or form of transmission by which you deliver or store information on. It is basically every form of communication that we have out there, like our cell phones and our e-mails, that among the million other gadgets and tools that we use to get or store our information on.
The “digital” part of the term comes from how this information gets organized when we send it through any form of media. Our information gets processed in digits, and these digits get organized in codes that look like this (000111 11 000110). To us, they look like a bunch of 0’s and 1’s but when they are composed in different formulas; the computer interprets it into words and other numbers. This type of system is what is referred to as a Binary Numeral System (bi- as in two, the system uses two digits, 1 and 0 to create the codes). This is the system that the computer works by to compose the information correctly and organize it. The computer is not human. It can not distinguish emotion in tone of voice, or understand the urgency of getting a very important message across. It needs this system to process our info with these digits so that it gets interpreted into the words and characters that we compose our messages with. That way when you send a message to your friend, they won’t receive a scramble of words and characters thus making the message incomprehensive.
It is amazing how all of this how all of this happens in just a matter of seconds, and it does not just do this with one message; it does it a million times a day, all over the world. Digital Media is keeping the world connected, with our cell phones, computers, television, internet, etc. It is something that keeps growing and changing, and now who knows what it is going to morph into next.
