The topic I have chosen to discuss is the topic of digitization. I think this is an interesting topic to talk about for many reasons. For starters I think it is a cool idea to have history digitized so you can view it at any time of day from anywhere in the world. However, I also think there is a downside to having things digitized. To me we lose the authenticity of the history we are trying to restore. I have always grown up with the mentality that looking at something through a picture does not really give you a great sense of the item or place. For me the item or place that is being photographed loses its authenticity because you do not get to see the true beauty of the real thing.You cannot connect with it through a computer screen. To me seeing something in person even if it is behind glass, or plastic makes the object more real. I feel like I am able to transport myself back in time or connect with the future or stay present in the moment when I am in seeing something in person. While there have been incredible technology improvements that have occurred over the years with photographs especially, I still believe you do not get the true beauty then when seeing it in person. When you go to a physical place to see the place or objects I believe that you get a deeper love and understanding for the object or place when you can now stand in the place or hold the object or even just seeing it with your own eyes. When you just look at the computer screen to see a piece of history or place that your friends have been talking about nonstop it does not do it justice at all. Nothing can compare to in person interactions even with inanimate objects. With the advances in technology it is also hard to see or know when something has been doctored from the original picture. When you are on your computer a million things can distract you from understanding or embracing the object that is being photographed. I know I will be doing research looking up history then I get distracted with ads or notifications so I am not fully present in the history. For me as I was growing up in school we went on so many different field trips especially for history or for science to help us understand what we were talking about in class. Some of my favorite places were Jamestown and Yorktown. Some field trips were not always history or science based. The best example I can give for this is my junior year in high school I was in an American Sign Language class. That class took a field trip to Gallaudet University in DC. This trip was super cool because in my class we talked about this school. We discussed how it is one of the only Deaf colleges around so the atmosphere of this campus is very different then your typical campus. I bring this example up because we did look at pictures of the campus online while also reading about the campus but in the end the pictures and readings did not do it justice. I did not truly understand the feeling people said you get when you go onto campus grounds verses going to another campus. It is dead silent yet super active. While the pictures showed the activity happing on campus and had no sound. You could not truly feel how alive the campus was even when there is little to no sound. It felt very much like your typical college with the buzzing of students but you would not necessarily get this just by the stories and pictures. This is why I believe that it is great to have things digitized but I also think that in several years maybe like twenty or so, us as humans are going to lose our ability to connect with the past, present, and future in the ways we have now. Be able to go to see an item in a museum or on a battle field allows you to not only connect with the past but also with future and be in the present moment. Technology I truly believe is killing our human connection with each other the world and our past.