David Shenk: The Problem with Hypertext (NPR 1997)
Until then, we are all stuck in a linear world. We can dabble in hyper-fiction and so-called dense TV as forms of entertainment and as thought experiments, but let us not forget that our brains are wired to read the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Time Magazine.
.. If Jane Austen could see what her book Pride and Prejudice has become on the World Wide Web, she would faint dead away. In the first five sentences, there are four invitations to go elsewhere.
.. For all of its advantages, hyper-text has no whole. As the Web becomes integrated into the fabric of our lives, mostly to our great benefit, we should employ hyper-linking as a useful tool, but be careful not to let it govern the way we think.