The Digital Elite

One big fear every college student should have in this floundering economy is the fear of not finding a job in his or her field after graduating. More than that, the fear of being left behind in all the aspects that would get that student a job. Whether that be not up to date with the news, culture, technology, or whatever else; like sleep, it feels like it's impossible to catch up on once you've fallen behind.

So it is with the digital humanities. I just read this article by William Pannapacker from The Chronicle. He's discussing the digital humanities as a whole as he saw them represented at last years MLA conference. He touches on what I talked about in my last entry about being a purist and having older standards of what academia "should be."

...one panelist noted that there has been some defensiveness about the field, partly because it has included so many alt-academics who felt disrespected by the traditional academy: “Harrumph … Playing with electronic toys is not scholarship.  Where are your peer-reviewed articles?” I know from experience that there are plenty of people in the profession who know little about this established field and even regard it with disdain as something disturbingly outré and dangerous to the mission of the humanities.

He also goes on to say, "At this point, the digital humanities are The Thing.  There’s no Next about it. And it won’t be long until the digital humanities are, quite simply, 'the humanities... The grassroots days seem to be ending."

When I read this, my initial reaction is to fight tooth and nail. But by doing that, I give an answer to a theory he poses at the end of the article.

At the end, he is discussing how the digital humanities have pretty much exploded onto the scene from something that was completely reviled and feared to something that is "The Thing." He says that the DH could create a split similar to the Big Bang Theory. Those who are opposed or uneducated on the digital humanities will get left behind by some kind of "elite society" that is formed from complete digitization of the humanities. Would the uneducated ever be invited to, as Pannapacker puts it, "the cool-kid's table?" Could they? If not, then what would this do? Would that be an improvement on the humanities at all?

The growing tendency of the digital humanities to become an elite community—always pursuing the cutting edge—may leave most of us behind, struggling to catch up with limited support, and humanities education, in general, will be unchanged by the innovation and excitement promised by the digital humanities at this year’s MLA convention

It could take several generations to be completely caught up. I'm twenty years old right now and I'm just now getting acquainted with the digital humanities and they've been around at least twenty years. I don't have a smartphone. I don't have an iPad. I barely use Twitter. This is my first blog. I have a Facebook like everyone and (literally) their mothers, and that is it. Am I out of the loop? How fast will I have to run to be caught up with this digital society? Or do you even have to run? It may just be possible to log in.

One last point. He makes a very slight mention of a very big thing: money. It's a very small reference, but he says, "And maybe most important of all: There’s money, most obviously represented by Brett Bobley from the NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities..." Bobley is the guy that I referenced in my first entry. It's interesting to add this very tiny perspective to the mix, and it gives a greater sense of gravity to the possibility of being "left out." Now if you're left out of the digital humanities circle, it may be the case that, not only will it be increasingly difficult to find a job, the ones you find in your field may not pay very much at all. Therein, the elites become stronger.