Writing for the web: the differences from printed paper

The media is evolving at ever-increasing speeds and often a careful reflection on the implications that this progressive acceleration implies on the writing itself may by lacking. This may come across as a quirk by intellectuals, but reflecting and understanding the differences between writing on paper and for the web, means being aware, and therefore incisive and effective, on what you want to communicate.

Obviously writing is communicating. Whether it is done on a papyrus, on a parchment, on a piece of paper or on the web. But it is evident that it is not the same thing. Even costs and the availability of material to report on, affects what you want to write and, in the end, what you write. Having only one sheet of parchment, a stack of paper or a potentially infinite space like the web, inevitably leads the text's author to be able to afford certain freedom or, rather, be forced to condense. The exponential increase of available space to the writer and, at the same time, its accessibility to anyone who should desire it, has led (not without creating problems) to the proliferation of texts.

Writing for the web, unlike for others (printed or autobiographies), has its own peculiarities regarding multi-mediality. The possibility of passing from one text to another (with the risk of not completing anyone's reading), of viewing videos, images and listening to sounds, partly modifies and betrays the process of writing. Writing is always a human process, which involves the author and the reader, but as much as the method is different the message that is conveyed is also diverse.