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To Glean the Treasures from the Web: The Pleasures
and Perils of Hypertext
To write a theology of the Web will be harder than I imagined.
Hypertext as a way to link together strands of life and thinking…….it
can be syncretistic (bringing together) and It can be diversionary (looking
around endlessly)
But is this just a "Web tendency?" Isn't this what most of
life is like? Don't we tend to "take in" things from all manner
of directions, and filter down to those things which act upon our curiosity,
and cast our attention upon these?
As in a library visit, when we are looking up a particular book that
we have found in a card catalog description, we often find ourselves picking
up other books with titles or covers which catch our eye, and so, in a
serendipitous manner, veer off in new directions from some other "link"
in the world of the library shelves.
The WWW is very much like this, only the "links" are plastered
all over nearly every page we read, beckoning us to "check out this
cool site" on a subject which interests us.
It's not just the library where this happens. There are all kinds of
social functions where people gather, both formal and informal, where
a particular theme attracts the crowds, and then the participants meet
others with similar interests, or can view a gathering of resources and
information about a particular theme.
Advertisers work this way as well, focusing on their efforts to offer
a particular product to a particular crowd based on the "data"
about that crowd which statistics tell them are the most likely candidates.
A
WIRED article about advertising
gave a fascinating view of what future advertising via Internet may
look like.
I do not feel that the Web is all good or all bad. This seems rather
obvious to me. There is what David
Lochhead would call "pure junk", and there are things which
help expose us to a wide range of opinion and invite some sophisticated
learning. This is, again, like any previous media. The medium of computer
communication, and especially the "junkier" portions, has brought
out the initial "luddite" revolt
.
A Loss of Community in Computer Mediated Communications?
I heard Neil Postman on a TV Talk show talking
about computer communication and the hype surrounding it. He pointed out
that although the hype suggests that this will be an aid to human interaction,
that he expects that it will rather be a "loss
of community" . I do not doubt that such a scenario can indeed
happen, but neither do I share his seeming obligatory pessimism about
new communications media, at least in the case of Computer communication.
It seems to me that the question of whether a "loss of community"
takes place depends upon the level of community being experienced prior
to one's entry into the online world. Many sociologists have already written
on the loss of a "sense of place" in contemporary society. In
a world of TV and other mass media, one must ask whether computer communication
does not hold the possibility of providing a more level playing field
for the expression of ideas, and exposure to the thoughts of others in
relation to our own through the use of conferencing systems which grow
up around certain interests and concerns.
I just saw a magazine that boasted on its front cover that herein is
a way to explore the 'Wacky Worthless Web", and went on to say that
they would help you "Waste time on the Worthless Web and love every
minute". Now while this is certainly possible (I know because I have
enjoyed many hours of what seem to be "trivial pursuit"), it
seems to me that this is like learning itself. We have to put into effect
a certain kind of filtering which allows us to continue our pursuit of
useful information. The better our guides, the quicker is the finding
of the most relevant information. It is no different in libraries. With
less than clear references or misleading titles and summaries, we can
spend a lot of time setting aside material that doesn't fit our needs.
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