Do Internet Makes Us Dumb?
I'm a little skeptical about the hype surrounding Nicholas Carr's book "The Shallows" and it's thesis that the Internet is making us all dumber - maybe that's because I never thought we were that smart to begin with. BUT, it's evidently provoked some discussion about hyperlinking, and an article at Salon.com by Laura Miller does a great job of making the case for not putting linking inside an article. Instead, the article advocates putting links at the end of an article, in much the way that they used to do it in books.
In-text links, it's argued, are often used for jokey links that don't really add anything to the story, and perhaps more importantly, can make the writer sloppy;
LINKS
Salon.com: The Hypelink war by Laura Miller
Amazon.com: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by Nicholas Carr
[Wow -I feel like a grown-up!]
In-text links, it's argued, are often used for jokey links that don't really add anything to the story, and perhaps more importantly, can make the writer sloppy;
A sentence that's written to include hyperlinks won't necessarily make as much sense without them. You write differently when you know you can't dodge explaining yourself by fobbing the task off on someone more eloquent or better informed.I think there's some good points here, and as an experiment I'm going to try and do less linking inside articles and use more end-links, and see how that turns out.
LINKS
Salon.com: The Hypelink war by Laura Miller
Amazon.com: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
by Nicholas Carr[Wow -I feel like a grown-up!]
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