This semester, I have really been wondering what will happen with Internet
content in the future. So far, media technologies are still fairly new. All
throughout my textbook for my Intro to Journalism class I've looked at timelimes that have shown the progression of
different inventions and technologicial discoveries, from Nikola Tesla and his
radio coils to LePrince's motion pictures to Zuckerburg's
Facebook. A hundred years ago the world looked very different. Even fifty
years or fifteen years ago, things looked very different. I have a photo album
of pictures of my mother when she was a little girl, and they were all in black
and white. There are home videos of me as a little girl, and they are all on big
giant reels in my parents' attic. They are silent videos because home video
cameras back then apparently didn't have audio capabilities. In comparison, my kids have
hundreds of digital photos and videos of them on my blog
and on Facebook.
My dad loves
genealogy. When I was a kid we would hunt for photos of relatives and read
through old letters that gave us a glimpse into their lives. Those were real
treasures to us because they were rare.
If my grandkids want to know about me, they won't have to
rely on stories handed down through my kids or by finding my box of love letters
(which I really hope they don't find!) They could read my blog or notes I have
written on Facebook. But what about the next generation or the generation after
that? What will happen to my online content when I am dead?
I would love to be able to look back
at my great-great-great-grandmother's Facebook page or read her blog or wach
digital videos of my ancestors as they played in the hose when they were
children. Will that information still be around a hundred years from now? A
thousand?
What will happen to all
of the pictures and posts that I've uploaded in my lifetime? If they are still
available, we will have a rich world. We will be able to pass our knowlege and
insights down to generations in a way that has never been possible in the past.
The stories of our lives will be around forever rather than fading into
oblivion, assuming they don't get dumped.
That's my fear--that eventually all of the old data will get
dumped in order to make way for new generations to upload their stuff. Will my
blog still be around a thousand years after I've stopped posting in it for my
descendents to discover (assuming this world lasts another thousand years!), or will somebody out there decide it's no longer
necessary?
I've actually checked
into this on Facebook. They say that when you die, your family can set your page
as a memorial and only your friends can see your page. I would guess you can't
approve more friends, though, so any descendents I might have after I died would
be out of luck.
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