The fragmentation of information is a distinctive characteristic of the hypertext. Unlike text confined to print technology, hypertext forms appear to atomise into smaller elements or 'lexias'. They rid themselves of any significant dependence on what comes before or after in linear succession, as unilinearity does not exist within the realm of the hypertext. In this sense, given lexias form individual identities, taking on a life of their own. The presence of hyperlinks means a viewer is able to choose from a variety of paths, each as readily accessible as any other.

Take this website as an example. 'The Fragmented Text' may be the first block of text you have read, just as it may be the last of many. In either case, it is largely self-contained and so the order in which it is encountered is largely irrelevant.

Fragmentation lends a certain randomness to the text. The writer loses control over its linearity as its elements are split apart and granted individuality. As George Landow explains: "Text - or, more properly, passages of text - that had followed one another in an apparently inevitable seamless linear progression now fracture, break apart, assume more individual identities."