The internet is an amazing tool, but it has fostered a false sense of safety when it comes to the permanence and availability of information. So even though we have the most access to knowledge than at any point in human history, the practice of archiving and documenting the 21st century outside of social media and other digital spaces is practically non-existent. Pair this with constant technological advancements + an ever-growing collection of obsolete hardware and software from over the past 30-50 years and we've got a digital dark age in our hands.
Don't get me wrong, the comfort provided by being able to instantly back things up to the cloud or access any movie/song you want via streaming services is an immense privilege. At the end of the day, however, that very comfort still comes with future costs.
When everything is always "available" online, the inherent need to preserve has been all but rendered useless.
That is, until it isn't.
A simple server crash at a place like Instagram/Meta or even Google could lead to huge data losses, not just for the companies themselves, but for the very people who rely on their services to preserve personal memories and artworks they've created. This isn't a hypothetical, it already happened with MySpace in 2019.
Look, this rec isn't here to shame you into becoming a luddite or bully you into unsubscribing from all your streaming service subscriptions, it's here to serve as a reminder of the importance of documenting your life and the world around you without a dependency on the very digital platforms that have communicated reliability to its customers by building a mirage of permanence with their services. Nothing is permanent. Not even the internet.
We are all mini historians with the stories and experiences we collect and share about our lives. More importantly, you are your own unique personal library. So buy physical media, photograph your memories/commit them to paper, then digitize and make copies of them and save them in multiple hard drives. A subscription or data breach should not limit you from being able to document and look back on precious moments of your life.
Like the people before us, we are part of a larger tapestry that also merits to be acknowledged and understood, but none of that will be possible if we don't make efforts to document it (yes, I'm also talking about all the weird memes and layered internet lore that would likely give someone from the 1800s an aneurism– that shit's important too).
All in all, you don't have to be Einstein, Mozart or even Shakespeare for your history to matter. You are human and deserve to be remembered. Leave your mark.
