If you're reading this, you chose.
A bit more than a year ago I tried to examine just
what reading one of these columns entails. Actually, the main question I tried
to deal with was whether one had to click on every link within the column to truly
read it, or whether leaving the choice of how much, and what, to read up to the
reader was not only legitimate but even proper within a purposefully hypertextual
environment. I didn't reach a definitive conclusion then, and of course I won't
now as well. I have, of course, browsed various article which I'll later state,
with a substantial degree of confidence, that I actually read. I find that quite
legitimate. I'm not concerned with whether someone read every word because I want
them to be thorough and comprehensive in the way they approach my writing. Quite
the opposite, I think readers should be free to browse. That isn't the problem.
The problem is that a particular inauspicious link, one that a reader could pass
by without any qualms of missing anything, may well contain a link to an additional
page on which I write something contradictory to what seems to be the main text
of the essay. If the reader misses that link, there's a good chance he or she
will significantly misunderstand what I'm trying to get across. And if he or she
does that, can we really say that he or she truly read the essay?
Go to: The (ir)relevance of hypertext