Week 4 Question

In "Hypertext, Hypermedia and Literary Studies: The State of the Art", Landow and Delany suggest that “hypertext can be expected to have important institutional as well as intellectual effects, for it is at the same time a form of electronic text, a radically new information technology, a mode of publication, and a resource for collaborative work… Hypertext historicizes many of our most commonplace assumptions, forcing them to descend from the ethereality of abstraction and appear as corollary to a particular technology and historical era. We can be sure that a new era of computerized textuality has begun; but what it will be like we are just beginning to imagine."

This passage was written in 1991, at a time when hypertext systems were available in somewhat limited forms such as Hypercard and Intermedia, use of the Internet was largely confined to academic institutions, and the term “World Wide Web” had only just been coined. Now, 15 years later, comment and reflect upon the impact hypertext has had on the world.

Landow and Delany had been right. No way in their wildest dreams, 15 years ago, could they begin to imagine the full extent of the impact and importance of hypertext in the world today. I remember in the early 1990s, when Internet was first introduced in my primary school days, people were skeptical about its use. However, it is an integral part of our life today. In fact, I'm sure few people can actually survive not coming online at least once a day. It is a primary means of communication between people, i.e. emails, forums etc., and an important source of information, i.e. journals, publications, websites etc. And hypertext is the heart of all these activities. Information on the internet are mainly connected via links, be it simple search results, or emails, pop-ups, advertisements. All these are hypertext. The Internet is just one area in which hypertext has manifested, albeit a major part.

Hypertext, through its manifestation via the internet, has changed the way society interacts. Communication between individuals and group has transcended physical boundaries. Geographical distances are no longer a hindrance towards communciation. Friends and family are able to correspond through the Internet easily via instant messagers; companies are able collaborate with the use of emails and reduce operation costs; scholars are able to exchange ideas via online journal database portals, i.e. Web of Science, ScienceDirect etc. Internet has penetrated deep into our life and is here to stay; we have been assimilated by hypertext.

The importance of the Internet will only continue to grow as it spreads to various corners of the earth. With the introduction of wireless devices and further advancement in miniaturization of circuitry, we will eventually create a global wireless network society, where everyone on the move is connected to everyone else via Internet, and hence indirectly through hypertext.