Does the advent of digital media mean we leave less of a mark on the world?

Archeron

This is a question thats going to make me sound very old fashioned:)

Do you think the rise/takeover of digital media means that we;as individuals will leave a much less distinct mark on the world?

The reason I ask this is that throughout my life, at various points, I always came across old photos when I was clearing things out. These would always give you a little window into the past, and almost a lasting image of that world. Likewise, you could come across tapes, records, CD's, VHS, whatever, but always something, "of that time". The pictures weren't perfect, the angles weren't great, but that was part of the point. Now only things that depict utmost perfection are the ones that get printed.

I have found that most of my photo's move around on memory cards, or in a camera. My music is in my MP3 player, and my details and contacts are in my phone and PC. Chances are, these items will be transferred onto a newer better device when its available, or these items will be deleted, but chances are nothing tangible or physical will ever come of them; certainly nothing that wont require the use of a small color screen. When I leave this world, if my device at that time is good enough, it will be reset and reused; or else binned entirely.

There is not really any debating the benefits of portable media, its made things affordable, convenient, easily accessible and so on. But we very rarely actually make a real pictures or real things from these now. I know its so simple to just copy other media across and save it forever, but in reality we all know that it wouldnt end up getting saved in 90%+ of cases.

If ancient peoples had had regular photo's, would they have bothered painting on cave walls at all?

Would it have mattered if they hadn't?

Red Hand

Well, your forgetting about boards.ie? Assuming that it doesn't crash totally and loose every bit of data, and still exists in the future, then 2000+ posts of you are here for the world to see?

simu

Well, we're all producing more post-consumer waste than any generation before us. Woot.

Zulu

Interesting point! Personally I do think it's sad we now longer undertake massive cnstruction projects relative to newgrange, or the collossus - but then how could we justify the cost when there are so many suffering today?
I guess it's a sign of the times when we'd rather spend the billions on making stelth bombers

simu

Eh, ever watch Megastructures?

Zulu

I didn't you know! It was a great show. The Atlantic tunnel was class!

Blisterman

Well, I heard somewhere else, that the information from today, is likely to survive much more than any previous generation, as you can fit more and more information in less space.

i.e, a Blu Ray Disc can hold the equivelent of a warehouse full of floppy discs and can easily be copied. In 30 years, perhaps a single disc will hold as much as a warehouse of Blue rays etc.

Add to this, the likes of Flickr, which has it in its terms of conditions, that they will never delete any of the photo's uploaded on it, and even if they shut down, the whole database could be easily transferred to someone else who wants it. (Maybe even copied onto one disc.)

The real challenge is digitising, stuff from before the dawn of computing, while we still can.
For example, every issue of the Irish Times is already online, in digital format, and you can search for whatever you want.

Archeron

I never knew that some sites promised never to delete. I always thought that if you didn't log on for a long enough time, your stuff would just be erased forever.....


Enter tumbleweed for effect....

Wibbs

Blisterman wrote: »

Well, I heard somewhere else, that the information from today, is likely to survive much more than any previous generation, as you can fit more and more information in less space.

Yes and no. Its too dependent on technology that is fast changing. What if your life's work is on an original floppy? Or a video disk? Standards change all the time and todays standard is all too quickly outmoded.

Even with standards there are issues. Look at digital photos. I know people with loads of same. Fine, but it's not like granny's negatives in an envelope in a drawer. One severe hard disk crash and it's gone. Yes it's still possible that you can recover some of it, but most don't. I know one couple that had the candid photos of their wedding and photos of their first born and it's now gone. Yes they should have backed up, but so many don't. Memories lost forever.

The web or whatever it transmogrifies into makes for safer storage, but it's not foolproof. A massive electro magnetic pulse could fry the technology tomorrow. Unlikely? Maybe but the greeks and romans and others like them thought their culture would last forever. They were wrong. We've lost so much of both those cultures to time and decay.