Metaphors We Web By

As George Lakoff and Mark Johnson made clear in their touchstone book Metaphors We Live By, metaphors are the basis of all human thought and reasoning. The metaphors we use to speak about the web are not simply linguistic trivia – they determine how we understand it on a fundamental level. It determines what we think the web is capable of, what risks, opportunities, and challenges it poses. Which means the metaphors we use to think about the web profoundly influence what we think the web is, what we think we can do with it, and how we might change or evolve it.

…Out of all of these metaphors [for the web], the two most enduring are paper and physical space.

  1. ​Metaphors We Live By​
  2. ​Menus, Metaphors and Materials: Milestones of User Interface Design​