To worry about history being lost because everythingis digital

The thing is, it’s us as consumers of history, researchers of history that give it its meaning. When we come across something we decide how historically relevant it is and what it means in conjunction with whatever else we may (think) we know about the past. So Anne Frank’s diary may have the same prominence, it may nothing - there are many Annes that we’ve missed because documentary evidence didn’t survive. Oral history is a really interesting way of practising history and one that allows us access places we may not have been able to and cultures that are oredominantly orally based. We have broadcast now which is endlessly fascinating which people are using in their research. Perhaps we cannot preserve everything, but it’s self selecting in that way anyway.

Our way of approaching and practicing will change as it always has done.

Yes, I pay for iCloud to store my photos, that's not going to carry on after I've gone.

DH and I were talking about this the other day while he was looking through a box of his parents’ letters to each other. Our kids won’t inherit anything like that because our communication is almost all digital.

I think it’s easy to assume things will be kept just because we all store so much online. But storing things online takes energy (and hence cost)- who is going to pay for that when you’re gone? Why would they? Never mind the risks of technology becoming obsolete and other changes we can’t anticipate now.

It you want things to outlive you, have a hard copy.

I suppose Anne Frank and Samuel Pepys are so well known partly because their inner thoughts are so rare. Would we put that much importance on them if we also had 5000 other people in the same situations also writing diaries?

We will be truly forgotten after 2-3 generations have passed, like we never existed, even more so than in the past.

Would Anne Frank's diary have made it on, for example?

Yes, I believe it would, as the 2024 version of Anne Franks diary would quite likely have been uploaded to the Internet, just as this conversation is now. Or possibly stored on a device that would have had as much chance of being found as a physical, paper diary.

That goes back to October 2004!

@Lonelycrab unfortunately the storage medium is only part of it. There's lots of old computer tapes, laserdiscs (as in the Domesday project from the 80s), magnetic disks etc that are still in existence but that are near-impossible to read today. The hardware required to read them is obsolete and getting really hard to find in working order.
Once you do manage to get the data off of the media, you've then got to wok out what that data even is. All you get is a string of ones and zeros. Sometimes it's easy to work out what that represents. Sometimes, particularly if it's been compressed in an unknown format, it's virtually impossible.

@Lonelycrab On the whole, it’s being recorded better than it ever was imo this is a prevalent and very misguided opinion, I can only say it really isn't that simple, and you only need to spend 1 minute googling to recognise how much of a wide spread concern it is, not by conspiracy theorists, but governments and heritage professionals.

I think sadly younger people have very little interest in history generally. They are very much live in the moment, swipe through everything at 100mph etc. I agree that a lot of what is happening now will be “lost” but I think sadly no one will be looking for it either.

@ajdhpoqnavd
I get what you’re saying, but ultimately no storage medium or method of recording the past is perfect. How much of the day to day antics of those a thousand years ago do we know? Sure, some paper, books etc have survived but 99.9999% was destroyed /burnt/rotted away. There were no photos, videos or anything of that ilk, so Id say the future generations will already have the possibility for far, far greater insight into the past than we have right now.

If we, on a personal level, choose to store things in a way that can or can’t be lost is another matter, but I disagree with the premise that somehow our history will be lost. On the whole, it’s being recorded better than it ever was imo.

I think it might be the opposite in some respects.

During my history degree I had to read 20k word articles on the inscriptions of the tombstones on ONE tiny graveyard (then the same professor would ask us to write an essay covering 200y of history in 1500 words...).

Historians of the future are going to be comparatively swamped, even if 99% is lost.

I don’t think it’s that big of a concern… I mean how many diaries, documents and photos have been destroyed by fire, elements, or just age.

If you’re really concerned just imagine your kids some day pulling your angsty teenage words that you blogged from. I mean do you think this person thought that their party plans would be captured for the world to see 17 years later? https://topherous.livejournal.com/

@Lonelycrab only if we are very proactive about it. Much of what exists today has survived out of chance, paper can last for hundreds of years even in relatively unstable conditions, but digital data requires constant proactive selection, migration, security and preservation. Not to mention the sheer volumes of it that we now create making it even more unwieldy to preserve. Paper is tangible, digital data is not, just because it is prevalent, do not underestimate its instability. Rapid digital development means data is often left behind (my entire teen years are trapped in a NOKIA somewhere!) not accessible, or it is vulnerable to corruption and accidental or intentional destruction on a massive scale. Yes there are ways around it, but they're not as simple as it seems, it involves heavy investment, commitment and proactive planning.

I agree though, future generations will have a much richer understanding of us than we have ever had of previous generations, if we can get to grips with it all.

I've started printing off photos again.
Is there an archive that will take old photos belonging to ordinary people?
I have a wedding album and photos from the last family member who I knew. Could I send them anywhere?

Yes but will your great grandchildren be able to even read the format they're saved on? Or will it be the equivalent of a floppy disk or 8-track? Or will the data be corrupted?

I know what you mean - I rejoiced along with the rest of my family when an uncle spent hours scanning, sorting, and saving all our family photos in categorised folders and emailed them to all of us...

But now I have come to the conclusion that we should try and save photos in both formats... not every single photo of you in a nightclub in 2006, but the I'd print out the most important ones certainly.

I think, in terms of data, it’s the exact opposite. Transferability, and new longer lasting mediums will mean those in the future have a far greater insight into our history than we do of those several hundred years ago.

This is just one format that’s been released but I’m sure there’ll be better and more long lasting ones to come.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2015499/storing-data-long-term-m-disc-best-method.html

@G123456789 are they being torn down, or moved to museums where they can be contextualised?

as the social history of ordinary people being lost

Yes it's a good point, sadly lack of inclusive heritage isn't a new phenomena, minority groups have frequently been under represented in museums, archives and wider history; women (bearing in mind they couldn't own property for a long time for example, less economically active, reduces records available) and poorer people (think of the wills, portraits, diaries from richer, better educated classes etc) are the main 2 I can think of first.

History is being lost in my home city because statues are being torn down and nothing to explain the history is being put there instead. Roads, schools, concert hall's ditto...the woke left is whitewashing history !!!