J.D. Applen, in “Writing for the Web: Composing, Coding, and Constructing Web Sites”, discusses the quickly evolving process of writing and how digital print is continuing to become more relevant. He uses varying examples in order to highlight his point. Applen includes the use of emails as opposed to telegraphs. He also includes the printing press instead of manually writing books and manuscripts. Applen does his best to highlight what remediation is and its relation to the newer form of media currently plaguing society. There have been so many developments in terms of ‘written’ media that some of them are questioned. They’re tested in terms of their usefulness and whether or not they are deemed as ‘good’.
Is digital print distracting?
While reading, I noted that Applen brings up a valid point in reference to digital technology and how the transition between writing spaces isn’t the same as they were in the past. We aren’t going from one physical copy to another. The only difference isn’t that one is handwritten and one is printed anymore.
Instead, we are going from a hard copy to a digital space in which so many more things are added. Distractions, in other words. There is the addition of pictures and anything appealing to a specific audience. It can be questioned whether or not people are actually reading everything that they come into contact with online. Are people reading in depth or are they just skimming and enjoying the design aspects of the website they’re on? I mean if it’s genuinely all about the context of the material someone is interested in, why are so many people deterred away from websites that are inherently ‘ugly’ and ‘boring’?
Perception
Tying this into my previous blog post, there is reliance on the perception that a specific audience has on something. If an audience perceives something to be boring, they might be deterred from exploring a website in more depth. They might even just immediately click off.
In all honesty, I find Applen’s discussion of writing in digital spaces to be interesting. I agree but disagree with him at the same time. I have a complicated relationship with digital print and its impact on writing. On the one hand, it makes writing available to a wider range of people and gives access to those everywhere. It also enhances communication. But, on the other hand, writing in digital spaces can become a distraction at times because it can be hard for people to focus on the actual content of a piece without looking at other aspects of a website. I know this is true for me. Sometimes I just get distracted and skim a piece or do something else on a website because other things are more appealing.
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