In his 1989 article, "Computers, Minds, and Texts: Preliminary Reflections," William Paulson reflected on ways in which computing technology had influenced, was influencing, and would continue to influence the world and mind of the reader of literary texts. Of note in his discussion is a process he calls the "technologising of the reader" (296), the process of acclimatisation each reader undergoes as he or she becomes familiar with, and accepts, the computing technology being used. Important as that process may be, less than a decade following the publication of Paulson's article we have today also had a chance to witness, quite clearly, the concurrent influence asserted by the reader upon that same technology. Readers -- a word in the new medium that is becoming synonymous with "users" -- tend to shape computing technology to their own needs and expectations, even as they are themselves being shaped by the technology they use: as the reader is being, as Paulson puts it, "technologised," the technology is being, reciprocally, "reader-ised."

1. digital humanities

Original publication information:

Originally published in Computing in the Humanities Working Papers (CHWP)

Date: August 23, 1998

URL: https://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/chwp/th_intro.htm

© Editors of CHWP, 1998. Jointly published with TEXT Technology (8.1 [1998]), Wright State University.