Last week in class we discussed the importance or relevance of digital archives, specifically videos containing historical inform on a particular subject. It got me thinking about how the future would learn about us, and how that differs so drastically from how we learned about our predecessors.
Ninety percent of our history classes are based on written archives, letters, and books. But in today’s world, we rarely put pen to paper, and if we do we don’t save it. When is the last time you wrote a letter to someone for anything other than a thank-you note? Personally the last letter I wrote containing any personal information would probably my mandatory middle school letters to our pen-pals in Liberia. How will future generations learn about us with lots of our important information behind password locked google docs and personal computers. When we die, what happens to our Facebook accounts that are locked from the rest of the world, permanently hiding our messages to others? Maybe the digitalized archives will help the world keep track of the plethora of information. I certainly hope that our world, as I know it, isn’t lost in a digital frenzy.