This week, we looked at the concept of a beginning, middle and end in terms of online networks and traditional media forms such as books.  When we look at a book, we know intuitively that we begin reading on the very first page, top to bottom, left to right.  This is the way the Western world has been brought up.  And, yet we can look at this concept in foreign countries and still see a symmetry between us all.  We all believe there is a place to start and a place to end, and that they happen in this order.  Whether the book is read back to front, right to left, we have a sense of how it is read embedded in the society in which we live, learn and play.

In saying this, all cultures have a similar thought process on books.  Yes, they are there to be read.  And secondly, there is an order in which to read them.

My question from the symposium is: can we say the same for modern media forms such as blogs?

Our lecturer Adrian tended to say that no, you cannot put the same restrictions you would on how you would read a book on how you would read a blogs.

Even though one can support this notion by explaining that the interweb and blogs can be made to reflect hypertexts, which draw information from many different sources, and form a network of pathways to information.  That essentially, blogs cannot be measured with a beginning, middle and end because they are non-linear.

But, if we look around, the world is really only starting to change the format of what we see in technology platforms now.  Up until 2013 – 14 we could still look at the average webpage, blog and social media form and see at least a beginning and an end.  It is with new interfaces and the integration of tablets and more tangible technological platforms, that this sense of linearity has been challenged and is changing.