Abstract

Stories and narratives are central to human creativity and understanding. Through them we acquire a sense not only of our environment, but of our own identity. Yet the role of the story is by no means fixed. Indeed it is both vital and inevitable that it evolve to the social, cultural and technological context (Ong 41). The recent shift from a society dominated by print, to one where digital media prevails invites us to consider the consequences for storytelling. How have the inevitable changes in perception, cognition and notions of identity influenced contemporary story structure as well as expectations of storytelling? What new stories have grown from this transition and to what magnitude do these, in turn, inform cultural identity as a whole? The page and the stage are being dissolved into the online medium.The categories invested with such importance in print culture are becoming less and less meaningful.This paper seeks to examine the dissolution of categories in the digital age and the implications of this for the contemporary story.