manicwave.com

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<p>Nothing is more worth studying than human discourse.
We are <em>the</em> language-using species and if we don’t understand how
we use it we’ll never understand anything. Recently, courtesy of the Net,
we’ve been using it in smaller pieces which require smaller investments
of time and attention.
These are new things; are they good things? <i>[Warning: long.]</i></p>
<h2 id="p-1">Credits</h2>
<p>I wrote this after reading Nicholas Carr’s
<a href="http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/04/clutter.php">Clutter</a>,
which was provoked in part by my
<a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2009/04/18/Media-Decor">Empty
Walls</a> and quotes at length from Steven Johnson’s
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123980920727621353.html">How the
E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write</a>. Go read Carr and
Johnson; they’re both good.
Carr says:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Whatever its charms, the online world is a world of
clutter. It’s des

the use of douchequake makes it worth reading