Materiality of the Internet
These are some of the thousands of computers and related hardware that were available for auction as a result of the failure of various dot-com companies in 2000 and 2001 (see Brooks 2001).
Of course, writing as a technology is itself material, as Christina Haas (1996) has pointed out. She defines material as "having mass or matter and occupying physical space" (4). Acknowledging the complexity of the ways in which writing can be understood as material, Haas explains:
Writing is made material through the use of technologies, and writing is technological in the sense and to the extent that it is material. Human beings have continued to use technologies (e.g. sticks on sand, pen and ink on parchment, #2 pencil on legal pad, cursor on monitor) to bring language to material life. Writing technologies are material not only in an of themselves, but also because they allow for the creation of the material artifacts that are named by writing (3).In asserting that writing as technology can "bring language to material life," Haas invokes the broad question of the relationship between writing and speech and the impact of that relationship on human cognition and interaction – a complex and problematic set of issues addressed famously by luminaries such as Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong. But the more obvious point about the physical nature of writing and technology is important here, because it can highlight how thoroughly the technology of writing can be integrated into human life.