Hyperlinks and the effect on real life.

Week Two

I had many thoughts about this weeks lecture, but this blog is about the main discussion point that I thought was the most interesting was the idea of audiences now being users or "produsers". This is because we can now control what we read and consquently what we learn. It is almost like those novels one used to read as a child, where one could "choose the story", where one was encouraged to "turn to page 80 to enter the cave" and so on.

Using online hyperlinks, we move quickly from text to sound to video to pictures on a variety of different websites. We gain information quickly from a variety of sources in a variety of different ways, and this can be a little or a lot-very relevant or very not. This is one of the advantages of "new" or "digital" media. We are actively encouraged to "seek more". Another example is the "red button" icon on digital television. It is always in the corner of the screen offering us new and more information.

One questions that this thirst for knowledge in different and new forms extends into real life. We cant just press on a word in a novel that we dont understand and gain a meaning or talk to others or the author directly about the text, while onlnie one can do this, as well as gaining so much more information than originally wanting through search engines and links, I believe that we now expect so much more than just words on a page, or a television programme with no interactivity.