Respondent: Distant Reading
I find the topic of distant reading quite interesting in a sense that I feel it is more efficient and useful with many careers in the future. Today we discussed the topic of whether or not we will be given an exact set of instructions at a job place, or would we rather be given a task and ‘figure out’ what we must do in order to complete that task. Whether it means that we must go out and learn a whole new subject or in todays case, learn a whole new programming method, the task has to be completely in one way or another.
Similar to the idea of distant reading, I believe we live in a much more digitalized world compared to a mere 10-15 years ago. We have so many more resources and options as far as research and data utilization on the Web as well as our school’s library. We can simply sit at home in our bed with a laptop and literally find any information we could possibly want.
The issue is that many jobs do require a lot of ‘self learning.’ Just from personal experience with jobs in the past, there are many skills one must posses on their own through personal research. This theory of ‘distant reading’ indulges us to think on our own and rather than being given a set of instructions, we actually go in search of how to fulfill something.
It’s funny this topic brought up a great example of one my of my close friends. He started working at Macy’s, and I asked him if they have to go through a training session or any thing of that sort. He replied: “No, the manager took me to the men’s clothing section in the basement, taught me how to use the register and told me…Good Luck.”