The voices of doom are, in these days, legion.
Sven Birkerts, O. B. Hardison, Alvin Kernan -- just to name a few -- have written tomes decrying the coming technological revolution. Some write in a tone of sad resignation others in the deep accents of a bleak despair.
Meanwhile, Webworkers and others using electronic tools for the purposes of communicating go on about their business, e-mailing and publishing, writing responses, linking. Communicators rarely wait for the pundits: they just do whatever comes, naturally or not.
There are lots of pointers to "Cool Stuff" all over the Web and apparently boundless enthusiasm for cyberspatial bounty. But I have yet to see much in the way of thoughtful analysis of the Web as a human construct, creating itself through a confluence of human motives and shaping its users' communications practices through its entitlements and restrictions. Can anyone point me to some?
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This page is part of the article, "E-literacies: Politexts, Hypertexts and Other Cultural Formations in th e Late Age of Print."