You can literally click on a link and it could take you anywhere around the world. I’ve been doing some background reading and it seems that a lot of people think that the web is set out “non linear” and with no structure. I found a quote particularly interesting by Wise (2000) in “Cybersociety” by David Bell … “hypertext was developed to reflect the nonlinearity of human thought processes – and the complexity of maps that trace links clearly illustrates this.” I disagree with this, maybe because I don’t see the net as complex at all…
I agree with Lister in that the web isn’t non linear, it gives readers a “Multi linear experience.” (Lister page 27) Although people argue that its non-linear when compared to other mediums like reading a book, which is seen as “sequential reading and writing” (Lister page 27) but you can still skip chapters when you don’t want to read particularly about something, websites are still understandable. An example of this can be how magazines can now be read online; they are still set out in a way that the viewer/reader will recognise. I usually read heat online http://www.heatworld.com/2 and it mirrors the actual magazine. This is also evident with online newspapers. Just because one link doesn't follow on from another isn't complex, it just allows for people to pick and choose what they want to read, they can still read link after link, like a chapters of a book.
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Hi Cara,
ReplyDeleteThis thing about non/multi-linear thought perplexes me too. I have decades of experience of 'creative thought' from artists of one kind or another, and certainly it is the 'out-of-logic' connections that we are capable of which make such people fun. But we all (including them) need to connect ideas into some sort of 'story' and this need is dominated by our own personal 'logic' of cause & effect. Much of the early writing on Hypertextuality downplays this need for 'order' -which linear forms (reading & AV) do so well.