Digital information
(also digital data)
Digital information definition
Digital information is data that represent other forms of data. It uses specific language (like 1s and 0s) so that various systems and technologies can interpret it. Digital information is any data that is stored, transferred, read, and used by networks, computers, and other machines. Most real-world information can be converted into digital data, from audio and video recordings to the specific gene that decides if your hair is brown. Using digital information to represent and recreate elements of the real world helped many technological advancements, like determining how a virus would react to a certain drug or how the environment might affect a spacecraft exciting the earth’s orbit.
Analog information vs. digital information
The flow of analog information is continuous, while digital data jumps from one set of information to another. A clock is a good way to understand the concept. An analog clock will have a hand slowly moving from one minute to the next, never stopping. On a digital clock, this change is not continuous: the numbers jump from one to another in a clear sequence. It is never “in between” two minutes, it’s always either/or due to digital information’s binary nature.