andrewdoak

I was reading an interesting article today about internet history over at ComputerWorld.com, Deleting your digital past - for good. Very interesting article. I’m not going to go into too much detail about it other then no matter what you put online, odds are, no matter how long after you’ve done it, it’ll be there for someone to find.

It started a thought process that spans all facets of digital media. Media, in general, is nothing new. Printed word, cave drawings, daguerreotypes, vinyl… it wasn’t that long ago that I made mix tapes (shut it, so did you, unless you were born in the 90’s, to which I wonder why you are here in the first place?), then came mix CDs, then multimedia CDs, then DVDs, then HD, then Garage Band…

My wife found an old box of “love” letters during one of our multiple moves:

“What the hell are these?”
“Old love letters…”
“Why do you still have them?”
“They were from when I was a kid…”
“Again, I ask, why are you keeping them?”
“I dunno, toss em.”
“I am.”

We recently cleaned out our office and I found stuff that was old; way old. Junk, in most cases, but the occasional zap to the memory. No love letters (other then from my wife). Items of questionable significance that housed a lost feeling, emotion, state-of-mind that was fuzzy. I don’t have an exact recollection as to how I felt or who meant what from a scrap of paper, but I’ve got the general idea of what I “believe” was going on at the time. See, I’ve come to realize that most of the memories we have are interpretations of our own perception. What I believe occurred, even if you don’t agree because you don’t have it documented via audio recording, video, transcriptions, eye-witness accounts… or do you?

I can do a search in my gmail account, by date, and get every email I wrote, sent or even drafted and was smart enough not to send. I can read the responses. I can even, in some cases, read a groups response (if it was a mass blast). Ok, so that’s email, who cares, we all know that, if you are stupid enough to put it into email it will always be available. Fine. but what about your computer? What about jumping into your computer and putting in that same date. Every record comes up, from history of browsing, document creation and archive, audio uploads, cache history, you name it. See, we are walking around with a literal diary (those of us that have laptops, that is) of our digital lives. Not a thought, not a believed perception, but actual documentation to contradict your shitty memory. It’s all there.

So what the hell is my point? My point is we have such a record of our actions that it can be a bad thing. Sure sure, you can delete, but what if you need that reference of that file from 5 years ago? What if you need the documentation to prove something? When did we get so concerned about justifying our existence that it was a smart idea of keep such a detailed log? I hate diaries, because they have the stigma of holding all our personal secrets… guess what folks, if you knew it or not, we are all keeping a diary. A date stamped, time stamped, indexed, search-able, organizable, cross-relational diary of our lives. We even back it up (those of us that are smart… or stupid, your call).

What you do online will be documented. What you do offline will be your life record. What you remember will slowly fade from fiction to fact, and you’ve got the proof to back it up. Makes me want to get off this ride and go back to sketch books and Hasselblads. That, or honest to goodness mix tapes.