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Also, in hypertext one is exposed to the audio as well as the visual. Many readers of the book are losing out on this aspect as well as the flexibility and the variety of information obtainable on a hypertext. Another aspect of hypertext which is an advantage is the convenience in which you could obtain it. It is literally at your fingertips any hour, any minute of the day. In the case of the book, you would have to go to your old boring bookshop and search among the shelves for whatever book you are looking for. One should keep an open mind when reading a hypertext and be willing to be brought in various directions. It is likely hypertext may eventually become the book of the future but then again it is problematic in its own ways as well. There are problems both for the electronic writer and the reader of hyperfiction. For the former, one of the major problems is the instability of the Internet whereby information or parts of their document are liable to be wiped out or tampered by hackers. Also, writing a hypertext may be tedious for a writer due to the process of inserting those hyperlinks. Another major problem is the problem of copyright. For the latter, reading hyperfiction may be a frustrating experience especially if they have a slow system or modem that may result in difficulty downloading the hyperlinks such as not being able to retrieve those pages after clicking on the hyperlinks, causing it to be very disruptive for the reader. Usually, in most cases such as this, the reader would usually throw in the towel and opt for his old trusty book. Also, the ' de-centralised' nature of the hypertext can be very disorienting as the reader would lose his focus and the main point of the story and may give up reading on as well (especially if the hyperlinks do not help to develop the story or has nothing to do with the plot of the story). Reading on the internet can also be a very costly activity, what with the phone bills as well as the internet bills. Another problem of hypertext is that not all people have access to computers as some still cannot afford one while there is still a small majority of people who are not computer literate. After all these considerations, doesn't it make you want to curl up in bed with your old trusty book? I sure do. However, I still feel that if given a choice between reading hypertext or a book, it would be good to have a mixture of both. THE END |
