Schreibman—Born Digital

"Increasingly, digital objects are not created as digital representations of material objects, but as original, possibly unique objects. The born digital takes many forms: some simulate aspects of the material world (virtual worlds such as MySpace, and Second Life), others are modeled on published formats (as Wikipedia is to print encyclopedias...). Digital art and literature bear some resemblances to their analogue predecessors, but the ease of integrating multimedia in digital works is breaking down disciplinary boundaries. What these new forms of electronic discourse have in common is that they exist only digitally."