Man vs Machine
In Cohen and Rosenzweig’s chapter, Becoming Digital I found the section discussing ways to make text digital most interesting. After explaining different methods for digitalizing text, such as scanning and OCR, the authors come to this point:
“Although it seems counterintuitive, studies have concluded that the time spent correcting a small number of OCR errors can wind up exceeding the cost of typing the document from scratch.”
I find this statement particular interesting because despite all the technologies we have created to make our lives easier and more efficient, the most basic and archaic method of digitalizing text can often times be the more accurate, less expensive and less time-consuming method. To me this is like telling someone that it would be cheaper, faster and easier for them to take a horse-drawn carriage to California rather than drive a car or ride an airplane. Like cars and airplanes, scanners and OCRs are meant to provide faster and better results than older methods but as anyone who has a car knows, sometimes they can create even bigger problems and be extremely frustrating to fix.
This goes to show that although we have come a long way with technology, we still have a ways to go before we can give up the “tried-and-true” systems we have been using for years. It is comforting to know that technology is not perfect and that computers are not smarter than us. It may be amazing what technology can do for us but nothing can beat what we can do for ourselves.
Old fashioned? Yes, but maybe more effective.
Better? Not necessarily, this method is prone to errors.