Our Digital History is History

Posted June 11th, 2009 by Lindsey Reminga

In an article written by Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library, she makes a shocking assertion that in the future, the 21st century may just be a big black hole in our history.

With everyone storing their information online, we tend to casually delete any outdated information and upgrade with the new. So what happens to the old information? Does it disappear forever?

Lynne begins her article with a statement about the United States’ President website. Apparently, all old information on the site is erased forever when a new president comes into office:

“At the exact moment Barack Obama was inaugurated, all traces of President Bush vanished from the White House website, replaced by images of and speeches by his successor. Attached to the website had been a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration – they may never know them now. When the website changed, the link was broken and the booklet became unavailable.”

Whether or not this statement is entirely true, it makes me think about my personal history on the Web. I delete, rewrite, redesign, and reorganize my life on a monthly- sometimes weekly- basis without ever thinking about losing those memories. The social Web of today is an amazing diary of so many people’s lives- How do we store this history of the human personality in 21st century America? Will it continue to be destroyed, and ultimately forgotten in the future?