the one with all the links
I have mixed feelings about the internet. Specifically, hyperlinks. Used sparingly, they can amplify meaning and lead readers to interesting tangents. But I think they can be overused. I don’t always want to leave the page I’m on, interrupting the flow of what I’m reading.
It’s a weird way of reading. Imagine if books worked that way. What if every few lines, you had to flip to another page to really get the author’s meaning.
Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov (see page 22) was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov (page 24), a landowner well known in our district in his own day (pages 240-245), and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death (page 30), which happened thirteen years ago (page 78), and which I shall describe in its proper place (pages 108-110, 355).
I think hyperlinks are just enabling our attention-deficit mentality. It encourages writers to be lazy (I could explain what I mean as I write, or I could just let people click on something if they want more depth). It encourages readers to be unfocused, filling their heads with snippets and fragments instead of following the twists and turns within a piece of writing.
In general, we have too much access for our own good. One night, I was playing poker online, watching video clips on YouTube, checking the headlines on MSNBC, answering an email from a friend and posting an ad on Craigslist. I can honestly say I didn’t enjoy any of those experiences, but I was able to do them all at once. I fear I am actually losing the ability to focus on anything for longer than the time it takes to read a few sentences.
So in the spirit of altruism, as much as I want you all to visit my website, might I also suggest you start reading a classic novel. Grab a book–an actual, physical book–sit in a comfortable chair, turn off everything except a good light, and lose yourself in a well-told story. Just my little suggestion for everybody’s mental health.
