Computers and Languages

I've been exploring some of the features of the Blogger environment. In particular I've been looking through the Design section, and have found that Blogger allows you considerable freedom to modify the underlying HTML and CSS code. This means that you can create a highly customised page and site design. But what I particularly like about this feature of Blogger is that it provides very useful guidelines on how to modify the code. Read more here This, I believe, is a great way to play around with some HTML and CSS.

'The Guardian' recently ran an interesting article about a current trend of criticism of social networking technologies (e.g. websites such as Twitter and Facebook).  Read the article here The arguments include claims that social networking makes us lazier, less able to digest large quantities of information, and less human. An example: we go into a cafe and see people sitting at their laptops or tapping away on their mobile devices, whilst not actually talking to the people around them. So in effect, ignoring the real people around them, and focusing instead on communicating with others through electronic devices. Those who disagree with these arguments state that social networking actually increases communication and helps to bridge geographical distances. They also argue that it is simply not true that people used to chat with those around them more before these new technologies existed. So the question is: did people really used to chat to each other more (on buses a...

David Crystal (2001, vii) cites a comment made by Tim Berners-Lee that: "The web is more a social creation than a technical one." What do you think this comment means? Write your comment using the 'comments' link below.