“If a particular module  of a computer program is deleted, the program will not run. In contrast, with traditional media, deleting parts of a new media object does not render it meaningless. In fact, the modular structure of new media makes such deletion and substituion of parts particularly easy.”

This quote is from Lev Monovich’s book, titled “The Language of New Media”. In this book, he talks about 5 different categories under which new media falls under: Numerical Representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability, and Transcoding. This particualr quote is found in the Modularity section of this book. Modularity as a whole is the degree to which  a system’s components may be separated and recombined. According to Lev Manovich, modularity covers the principle that new media is composed of self-sufficient parts (or “modules”) of the overall media object.

Modularity is important because it allows new media to be both dependent and independent of the other 4 principles. Because of this principle, a module can be manipulated, distorted, or even transformed without disrupting the other parts of the content that is being created. This allows users to be able to have the flexibility and independence of a programmable module without disturbing anything else that might have been created. For example, on a blog website like Tumblr, you can have a post that contains a still picture, text, as well as a .gif, which is a part of a video that is on a loop. Someone who is familiar with HTML can go in and program each of those things without disrupting the other things. But if you delete part of the code that programs the page itself, it might not work. I personally feel that modaularity is one of the most important components of new media, and has a major contribution to the other 4 principles as well.