Altered states

The ways of reading the web are predominately visual, and it is rare for a viewer to simply read the pages one after another in a linear fashion; what is more usual is to edit as part of reading. We read a part, line or paragraph, skip irrelevant content and move through the information to find what we want. Often this is navigation done through visual structure, and by and through a sense of associative ideas. If this is the case, are we losing narrative student and are the readers enabled by this seeming lack of coherence?