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Original poster

To worry about history being lost because everythingis digital

64 replies

Trainbother · 02/05/2024 18:23

So much of what we know about the past, especially about ordinary people, is because someone came across old letters or diaries. How does that happen when everything is on old or obsolete devices that no-one's looking at?

I recently came across a carrier bag of photos from late DH's military service in the 1990s. Very interesting, but they'd have been lost forever if they were on a phone or PC I didn't know about or couldn't access.

How will future generations learn the history of ordinary people? I know there'll be official records of the big stuff, but what about the rest?

OP posts:
Original poster
Trainbother · 02/05/2024 20:57

LividAA · 02/05/2024 20:55

I had my baby at the start of Covid and genuinely worried the apocalypse was coming.

I started getting photo books every three months just in case the internet went down. I’ve evolved to once a year.

Print anything you couldn’t bear to lose forever is my thought. Doesn’t have a good solution for video though.

I'm not so much worried about me losing things, as the social history of ordinary people being lost, with no letters diaries or photos to be "discovered".

OP posts:
LividAA · 02/05/2024 20:55

I had my baby at the start of Covid and genuinely worried the apocalypse was coming.

I started getting photo books every three months just in case the internet went down. I’ve evolved to once a year.

Print anything you couldn’t bear to lose forever is my thought. Doesn’t have a good solution for video though.

Original poster
Trainbother · 02/05/2024 20:52

Derpo · 02/05/2024 20:41

Digital has helped me save my photos, I’ve lost pretty much all my physical ones due to various reasons, but I have ones from the mid 2000s that I put on various online private repositories, throughout the years I’ve just moved them and backed them up. With the way back machine I can see my cringey early 2000s websites and the online journal I had

You've got them safe, but no one's going to find them in100 (or30/50) years' time, whereas your printed ones could actually turn up

OP posts:
Original poster
Trainbother · 02/05/2024 20:51

OUB1974 · 02/05/2024 19:39

I'm an archivist... don't worry, we're onto it! Digital preservation is taught as part of an archives qualification nowadays and if you look at the National Archives website they are doing lots to preserve digital records... there is an organisation called the Digital Preservation Coalition that does a lot in terms of training and research.

Yes, all the official stuff will be saved , but what about DH's carrier bag of photos and the like?

OP posts:
ajdhpoqnavd · 02/05/2024 20:45

It's hailed as the digital dark age, it's a huge concern, you know it's a concern when the VP of Google said to print out your favourite photographs! Whilst the heritage sector are acutely aware, they're far from being on top of it. It's a very real and concerning problem.

Derpo · 02/05/2024 20:41

Digital has helped me save my photos, I’ve lost pretty much all my physical ones due to various reasons, but I have ones from the mid 2000s that I put on various online private repositories, throughout the years I’ve just moved them and backed them up. With the way back machine I can see my cringey early 2000s websites and the online journal I had

Tengreenbottles2 · 02/05/2024 20:34

I recently spent £160 and several hours getting photobooks made for that very reason... I suddenly realised I had thousands and thousands of photos from the last 20 years of my life, but barely more than a dozen actual printed photographs.

OhHelloMiss · 02/05/2024 20:28

@OUB1974
Yeah all really interesting and everything but the everyday persons photos and memories aren't being 'archived' ....

Op I guess we will all be forgotten!

SevenSeasOfRhye · 02/05/2024 19:43

It's a really interesting question. I've always imagined post-digital era there will be far more archived information available. E.g. all the pictures of my childhood are in a couple of photo albums - whereas nowadays people have literally thousands of digitally stored pictures.

And for events of importance there is a consciousness now of the need to preserve, which there hasn't always been - e.g look at the archive recordings of WW1 veterans that were taken while they were still alive to tell their stories.

I still keep a paper diary but I am aware that's getting less and less common. I do think private records might be more valuable in future than, say, blogs.

ArchaeoSpy · 02/05/2024 19:39

tictok ? that said i can understand your points op, i guess unless people still make scrapbooks etc via printing their photos or writing down their memories etc then its all digital

OUB1974 · 02/05/2024 19:39

I'm an archivist... don't worry, we're onto it! Digital preservation is taught as part of an archives qualification nowadays and if you look at the National Archives website they are doing lots to preserve digital records... there is an organisation called the Digital Preservation Coalition that does a lot in terms of training and research.

the80sweregreat · 02/05/2024 19:29

Probably be written by an AI robot for ' prosperity'

CherrySocks · 02/05/2024 18:33

Yes it is a good question. What can we do about it?