Hypertext is a concept associated with computer science. It refers to the system that allows linking text fragments to each other, which allows the user to access the information through the related items instead of sequentially.
The concept of hypertext was created in the 1960s by the American philosopher and sociologist Theodor Holm Nelson to designate the new non-linear and interactive reading that emerged with computer science and the emergence of the internet.
To carry out the hypertext process, the World Wide Web (www) used the HTTP protocol, an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol which in Spanish means Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which consists of a communication protocol between information systems that allows the transfer of data between computer networks to link HTML pages or web pages and multimedia files.
In this sense, we can observe a great difference in reading with respect to printed books, since in them the reading is done sequentially from the beginning to the end, and in the case of hypertexts, users can do it in Nonlinear form, that is, they can visualize the information without a sequence but by following their interests in their search or concept.
From the appearance of computers, the texts acquired a new interactive dynamic according to the speed of the information currently received, being advantageous for the area of education for facilitating understanding and presenting a dynamic and interactive type of narrative.
A notable example of hypertext is internet articles, which in the body of text present various links or hypertext links in words or in topics that are related to the main or developing theme, which allows the reader to have a reading more active and choosing the information you prefer to access. We can also mention, dictionaries, encyclopedias, among others.
In the field of literature, there are claims by theorists of the literature that the use of hypertexts are not only used in digital media but can go further, since it was used in the development of some works, in view of the fact that the author offers a non-sequential reading, with links to other stories, fragments of other authors, etc. For example: Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar.
Hypertext and Hypermedia
The concept of hypermedia was also created by Theodor Holm Nelson and is related to the definition of hypertext, since it corresponds to the fusion of non-sequential and interactive elements. For some scholars, hypertext is a type of hypermedia with the difference that the former only contemplates texts while the latter presents images, videos, audio, graphics, for example: social networks, blogs, computer products such as power point or flash, and it is noteworthy the first system related to the hypermedia Aspen Movie Map.
