To wonder how these forum threads will be used as part of history?

[NoraThePessimist]

Can you imagine how interesting it would be to read the struggles of a maid in 1920s Britain? Or the intimate, no holds barred troubles of a prohibition era housewife? Or some such historical "snapshot" which, unless their diaries were published (a rarity) the modern world simply doesn't fathom?

It's struck me after reading a particular thread from back in 2007 / 2008 that maybe some of the posters talking are dead, or their "11 months old" baby is actually now a 12 year old... And wondered how our posts will be read by future generations... 50, 100 years into the future...

Online forums basically give a voice to the masses which, until now, has been forgotten in history. I wonder how they'll judge us?! ("Wow, they really thought Baby Led Weaning was a good thing" or some such thing?)

I think a big part will be people’s lack of environmental concern with threads about holidays, cars, washing towards every day or whatever because if things do go tits up with the climate, the way we consume at the moment will be astonishing to future generations.

We’ll have so much more, and more varied, source material about the post-internet era, assuming a reasonable level of archiving. It does make you think.

That’s actually a fascinating thought. I wonder how available these threads will be.

Interesting thought! They’re true snap shots of the time.

I imagine the authenticity of topics and contributors is too uncertain for forums like this to be of much interest or use in years to come. We all accept that a lot of what we read on here is complete fantasy.

Oh my ! The future people will see just how bad our choice of partners used to be and how we all were pants at grammar and spelling !

Interesting. I assumed you’d recently finished The Handmaid’s Tale.

assumed you’d recently finished The Handmaid’s Tale.

Yes, good point.

She (L) is writing specifically in the hope of being read in the future, of course. The other testaments being legal witness statements.

Still, an interesting parallel.

Oh no, sorry, I’m talking about The Testaments. AHT is very similar, though.

No, not read handmaid in a long time. Never heard of the other either. It was a v v old thread about weaning that made me wonder

I wonder if they’ll be saved? There are thousands of everyday letters that weren’t kept in Victorian times, and I suspect that internet archiving will ultimately be the same—they’ll disappear and so become fascinatingly rare. Print them off and save them now for your great grandchildren!

@Quaffy Yeah I agree.

Recently I saw some typical Gammon meme going round FB against Greta Thunberg, saying if younger generations think we are killing the planet then they should try living without their iPads, driving cars, holidays abroad etc. It was supposed to be a snarky thing implying that the younger generation are being hypocrites. But I would quite happily give all these things up if that's what would save the planet. We don't need it more than we need air to breathe and food to eat.