There’s a very dominant narrative in our culture that online is forever. We warn young adults to be careful about what they post on social media lest it wind up in the hands of future employers. But not everything is forever.
Lots of people are familiar with “The Wayback Machine” which tries to preserve the internet of the past by archiving as much as possible, but it can’t store everything. A recent article in the Atlantic pointed out that generations who grow up with the internet are even at risk of losing their cultural touchstones. As popular culture moves increasingly online will parents be able to share with their children the cultural artifacts they experienced through Youtube or the websites of the past?
This is an interesting topic. I have thought about this digitization of everything. Today heard a story on NPR about how Dave Grohl grew up going to record stores and listening to music with friends and how now that isn't possible for most kids since the stores have all closed up. I identify with that as a 30-something year old – everything is online now from photos to music to books you name it. What if something were to happen to the internet and we couldn't access these things anymore? We might actually have to go back to cd's and dvd's and *gasp* paper books!