Hypertext

Sounds scary, but after some investigation I don’t think it is that complex.

Essentially, a hypertext is a link within a text medium that links to another text.

I was initially a little confused as hypertext sounds exactly like a hyperlink, which I am very familiar with. After a little research I discovered that they are more or less the same thing. Hypertext is any text that contains hyperlinks. 

We were asked to view two pieces and see if they pertained as hypertext or not.

‘Joyce’s Twelve Blue‘ is a very hypertext heavy sort of ..story? I guess you could call it.

It features a series of pages, each with a hyperlink to a different section. I’m not quite sure what was going on to be completely honest. I don’t mean to be offensive but I wasn’t sure if all the sections were supposed to relate or simply just be an example of how hypertext works in general. The colours and the overall layout do not appeal to me at all. It’s dark and difficult to follow; which may be due to the fact it was created in 1996. General web page design has dramatically improved in this time, so perhaps it is the older format that is unappealing to me.

Matt’s ‘Engaging blogs‘ was much more interesting for me personally. If something is visually appealing it makes it so much easier to read and engage in. This is clean, modern and easy to follow. I’m not 100% sure if this is technically considered as hypertext as the linking medium is a graphic; not text. The links are to the same piece of work, just different sections.

Through analysing some different examples I feel much more confidently about hypertext and it’s purpose in the online community.

Michael Joyce. 1996. Blue: Michael Joyce. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.eastgate.com/TwelveBlue/. [Accessed 23 March 2016].

Matt Kelley. 2011. Engaging Blogs. [ONLINE] Available at: https://prezi.com/bsh6dof2wg-0/engaging-blogs/. [Accessed 23 March 2016].