At the end of the “New media and literacy” section, Applen poses several questions comparing web sites with traditional media. I’d like to answer some of them to work out my thoughts on this specific section of the text.
Just how interactive is a Web site?
Well, this question depends, doesn’t it, on what the website is? In a broad definition of what “interactive” means, any Web site is interactive. Users bring meaning to every word and image presented on the site, according to how Manovich asserts it. If we wanted to get specific, to make “interactive” mean that a Web site’s content can be changed by the user, then something like a university’s static homepage is not at all interactive compared to your Instagram’s homepage. The former may allow for hyperlinks to be “interacted” with. However, nothing would ultimately be changed. This compared to the ability to manually refresh your social media’s homepage to see new content.
Are you interrogating it and asking questions of it as you work your way through it?
When people go on any Web site, there’s always some sort of goal in mind. To find information, to connect with others, or to be entertained. So, the “asking questions” of a Web site might be more subconscious than actively acknowledged. To “ask questions” might look like finding more content to look at on this site. So, following where certain links go, exploring people’s profiles, wondering what other information can be discovered on the site.
When you are reading a book, do you see the letters and the words of the alphabet in a different way than you might on a screen where you can change the text size or screen size?
Personally speaking, my understanding and my relationship with a text does not change whether I’m reading in my hands as traditional media or if I’m reading in on a Web site. The weight of the words doesn’t change to me if I can change the text or screen size.
But, I suppose, I do see letters and words of the alphabet in a different way than I might on a screen in the sense that my eyes would thank me for reading a physical book rather than a screen. I had always found reading words on a screen strains my eyes no matter if I can adjust the size of them or not, and that minor headache distracts me from what I’m reading.
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