Posted on by Belinda O

Treasure for the Future

What happens to our words when technology changes?

What happens when the media we rely on today is more outdated than eight-track tapes, and no one can access what we’ve written, the pictures we’ve taken, the record of history our present day communication will someday become?

Who are we counting on to save the gems of personal expression we take for granted today?

It’s phenomenal how much data we can store on a tiny piece of finely-crafted metal and wires, surrounded by plastic. Over time, those drives will corrode or be replaced by newer devices, and much of what you store on them is likely to be lost forever. Think of what you saved on disks just ten years ago, and tell me where you can go to retrieve all of it.

We cherish diaries of our ancestors, no matter how mundane they may have believed their lives to be, as a peek into hearts and minds of the people whose history shaped our own lives. How do we leave this same wealth of information for generations to follow?

This information will be a treasure someday.

I love blogging, but I fear what I write here will be lost eventually. The alternative seems to be print out my entire blog, and that isn’t going to happen.

If anyone has an answer, a real answer, not optimistic speculation, I’d love to know about it.

Image Credits © stock.adobe.com

 

12 Replies to “Treasure for the Future”

  2. Beyond any kind of speculation, optimistic or otherwise, I really don’t know. But it’s something I too have wondered about because as you so wisely stated….diaries do afford us a peek into hearts and minds of the people whose history shaped our own lives.

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  3. I once thought that in fact I stopped writing because I had no idea where I was going with it. It’s like what I had to say no one would listen or even feel it in today’s world it’s one focus, and its not what i was focused on. It almost seemed to me know one wanted to hear anything that wasn’t of the world. Anything outside of the now was not to be the greatest topic, even now i have a hard time writing and im slowly kicking into this blogging thing.

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  4. Your post gave me chills, Belinda. I’ve devoted so much of the last seven years to writing my memoirs and composing – all of it on the computer. I agree, it’s hard to imagine that it will be tangible in hundreds of years. Is there any answer? I can see printing out my writing, but with music recording – I just don’t know.
    I guess it is all about creating for the “now,” not to imagine it will be there in the future.

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  6. I feel what’s on the internet is sort of forever – meaning, as long as humanity lasts – but of course there’s the fact that people might not longer like to read what we write today. Tastes change quite fast. Besides, getting lost in the pile of information the internet has to provide is just too easy. In fact, just yesterday, I happened to come across a post I had written back in Dec 2015 on cooking. I had a feeling that I only started cooking properly as late as 2016, but the post proved otherwise. I remembered that day which was described in the blog post and it was so surreal, like walking back in time.

    The point being, even we, as bloggers often forget what gems we have shared on the webpages throughout years of blogging. I doubt anyone else will care.

    I do want, however, to select a bunch of a few good blogposts and print them off. If not for the world, then for myself.

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