February 11th -- Hypertext Article

This article was complicated for me to respond to. I believe that George Landow is responding to the separation of print theorists and hypertext theorists and how print theorists believe that using technology to read and use text takes away from the experience of reading and actually having the physical print in your hand. As technology becomes more and more prominent in our everyday lives, we are closing the connection between print and hypertext. Before, there was a distinct separation because in order to read a piece of text on an electronic device, one had to be at a specific location and confined to that space while the print version (like a book) allowed a person to read it anywhere (like the bathtub) and thereby gain a better, more pleasurable experience. But now we are responding to these limitations with making computers and other electronic devices available to take anywhere...from Iphones to the new paper-thin computers, we are now able to take our hypertext device anywhere we can take a book, bringing the separation closer together.

There are certain things that I dont believe that electronic hypertext can do quite as well as a printed version. When doing papers, I rarely make notes and edits on the computer. Instead I print out the copy and jot notes with pen on the printed version. It seems so much quicker to execute as my thoughts can immediately be put on paper and I feel like I have to think about what to type instead of just jotting notes in the margin. I do not believe that hypertext is replacing print text but expanding it. In the article, Landlow states that "the great and defining power of digital technology lies in its capacity to store information and then provide countless virtual version of it to readers, who then can manipulate, copy, and comment upon it without changing the material seen by others." This can be a great tool to expand on what has already been written. When we read information that is in hypertext, we can take that information and interpret and comment on it and put our opinion and version for others to see and comment on but they are still able to read the original text. Just because we have manipulated the text does not mean it is gone forever. We are not changing the text itself, just feeding off it to produce our own text.

The other big expansion for hypertext is its ability to link -- an area where print text is limited. The possibilities of linking the text to other resources, visuals, etc. is a huge tool in understanding the text that is presented. The article also states the resource of the dictionary and the statement that rarely is the printed dictionary used because an individual wants results fast. So they would only use the dictionary if it was essential to understanding the meaning of a text. With links to fast, online dictionaries, more words are looked up and more meaning can be derived from a text. However, a problem with links is that a reader can get caught up in the different links and resources and never finish the actual text that was suppose to be read. Another problem with hypertext and links is if that link provides analysis and other opinions, it would be hard for someone to formulate their own interpretation without being affected by the opinions and interpretations of others that can be easily found with the endless amounts of stored information.

The same can be said of our class -- we read a textbook about web design and the different elements and then we have resources and tutortorials linked to our blog as additional information to help us understand what web design is about. So instead of separating print and hypertext, we should be embracing the two and finding the highest potential for both so they can be the most beneficial to the individual using the text.