My favorite section of Bolter’s writings on remediation discussed the feature that I most adore when it comes to writing for the Web. What is this feature that I have grown so fond of? I love how writing for the Web gives us the ability to link from one article to another article, page, reference or source.
I treasure the ability to do this because oftentimes when I am reading plain, printed text I will have a dictionary beside me to use as a reference for words that I do not know or may be unfamiliar with. Linking takes out the extra work on my part of having to locate the answer I am unsure of.
Linking makes the medium have another dimension that I feel causes it to be more effective than any previous medium we as a society have used, with the addition of providing extra information. However, on the other side of the spectrum, this “redirection” that linking provides causes the search and the viewer’s understanding to be narrowed, since the content’s author is determining where the reader should be redirected. This can possibly lead to viewers not being able to formulate their own opinion and knowledge or even be mislead by writers pushing forward their own agenda.
Therefore, while I enjoy the ease of answers links provide to me as a viewer, I read everything with an open mind, ask questions, and advise other readers to be wary of the content they are redirected to and why they are being redirected to the specific content.
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