To worry about history being lost because everythingis digital

[Trainbother]

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?

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

Probably be written by an AI robot for ' prosperity'

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.

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

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.

@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!

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.

There is an interesting discussion on this

Cautionary Tales – Laser Versus Parchment: Doomsday for the Disc | Tim Harford

Being unable to read digital things because the software has moved on.

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

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.

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

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

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".

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 !!!

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.

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

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

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'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?

@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 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/

I'm sure lots have been destroyed, but many more have survived to be important historical documents

Yes and this is why their correspondence and diaries have been so important when they're found.

Yes but it will only be the documents known and considered important at the time. Would Anne Frank's diary have made it on, for example? Or any letters from private soldiers from the front?