Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The convenience of hypertext

In Chapter 16, Camilia Pagli discusses a very pertinent subject dealing with print and hypertext. Hypertext allows the reader to quickly find an area of interest just by the click of the mouse. Although books and articles written in print explain material just as well or better, the convience of these hyperlinks s made learning via internet superior. The ultimate example of this would be wikipedia. org. I love wikipedia, and feel that once I have pressed search it is hard to exit the site. This is because you can type in almost anyone, or anything, and something else maybe even a vocabulary word will spark your interest. However, there are some advantages to actual written work. Sites such as wikipedia as well as other search engines, can be edited by whomever feels like it. Although I have noticed false information will rapidly be deleted the fact that printed work is written by only one individual, and cannot be changed once it is published, seems to be more reputable and trustworthy in most peoples eyes. I feel that its a good thing that people will go out of their way to contribute to a site that others will read. The internet is great in the sense that everyone can participate and add something positive. Hypertext was bound to happen sooner or later. Today people are becoming less and less patient with all the technology coming out in recent years. People want instant gratification, and hypertext is allowing that to happen while trying to find out certain information. Its a whole lot easier than flipping through an index, or searching through a five inch thick dictionary, why not go to dictionary.com ?

1 comment:

Lance Strate said...

You can also use Google as a dictionary. In the search box, type in "Define:" followed by the word and see what happens.