Sunday, September 02, 2007
The internet…millions of users in 1995? Who knew?
Yes it is true; the internet is not just an overnight sensation. It has been around for over a decade, but more recently has become the new medium for news, work, and entertainment. And as much as people are worried today that the internet dilutes some news and makes books a thing of the past, there were worries of this even in the early days of the net, you know, dial up connections and AOL. Even now with the shift from only millions of users to billions and more, the debate over the internet wages on. Purists believe that things like celebrity gossip web sites and the millions of bloggers worldwide are the lowest form of news, ideas and thought. Yes you and I may have a great idea or point about a subject, but unless we are sitting down in a room typing it up on a typewriter, we may and will be judged. Books were once believed to be the highest form of though and intelligence and many people bought into this and read them. That’s fine because those were the times. Well times have changed…a lot. Some people like Sven Birkerts, who contributed to the document I am referring to believes that the internet is a distraction and that the information taken from it is not as valid as information from a book.
“The preferred medium for me is the word on the page, alone, with an implicit recognition that I'm not going to be there to gloss and elucidate and expand on it. It drives me, as a writer, to find the style that will best express my ideas. I would write very differently if I were typing on a terminal and my readers were out there already asking me questions
However, break up long paragraphs into tighter units. Writing style must follow the form and blog posts should be short and pithy. I have my own difficulties with this issue.
Millions of users, billions of posts, if the medium is the message then a blog post should be just a quick note or two that will add to an interesting discussion.
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