Over the past year, I have thought a lot about the impermanence of everything in my life — and life itself.
My relationships, family, friends, work, physical objects; none of it is operating within a container that exists forever.
The same goes for digital media.
Growing up in the age of digital connectivity, it feels as though the internet is this social institution that will always be there for us to play games, read the news, connect with people, apply for jobs, watch silly videos, etc. We’ve heard “whatever you post is going to stay online forever!” from parents and teachers alike. But the question I pose is, will it? Will it stay accessible forever?
And while I sit here and type this, I am not arguing that the internet is going to vanish even within our lifetime. However, I think we need to begin to look at the ways in which the digital media shared on the internet is not as permanent as we may believe. I believe connecting these dots has allowed me to detach myself from other institutions in my life. For example, the idea of a career or a permanent home. Careers are going to mold to the technology viciously being built as we speak, aka: if AGI is incorporated into the workforce in our lifetime, many career paths will be altered forever. Permanent homes are being impacted by changing environmental factors, economic stressors, and accessibility due to legal frameworks. I digress. Permanence is a funny thing to explore, and I think the more we can see its role in our lives, the more we can live a bit more consciously to help us navigate the future.
Some examples of digital media that is impermanent could include websites or social media posts.
Websites:
Websites feel like an entity that would live on forever, especially research sites or government documents. But this is simply not the case. In fact, 38 percent of web pages that existed in 2013 were inaccessible in October 2023. Which is incredibly wild. This is due to several factors, including: broken links, deleted sites, or host servers crashing. This becomes a very slippery slope when public-facing websites, such as governmental reports or webpages, disappear. An example of this traces back to 2017 when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed and altered portions of its climate change website under the Trump administration. There was a collection of data on greenhouse gas emissions, climate science, and education tools that were wiped out. Luckily, we have organizations like The Internet Archive, who are automatically archiving the pieces of the internet sometimes daily or weekly depending on the importance of pages/sites/socials. In this case, they were able to archive the original page, helping educators, researchers, and the general public root themselves in data that should be available to them.
Social media posts:
Meta, LiknedIn, and X, are just a few powerful forces on the internet — yet, they are just businesses. Their platforms host millions of people and their data, making them culturally relevant. This data (their currency) is stored in data centers that are in physical locations. In the most extreme case scenario, something could happen to all data centers that are being run as we speak. This would mean the data being tracked and saved (along with its duplications or “redundancy”) would be erased. This is highly unlikely. In another scenario, these companies could eventually close due to legal issues or funding. However, in my opinion, we’d most likely see these platforms wipe access to past posts, change filtering and search capabilities, or delete profiles manually that don’t fit some type of demographic requirements they enact. We have already seen the beginnings of this within the past 5 years. In this case, posts being removed or blocked are still archived in their serves, but we no longer have access. They are not erased but erased from public availability (which feels like they are gone forever). Even in the context of social media, The Internet Archive once again stepped in to help in a tremendous way during the attack on American democracy on January 6th, 2021. Many of the participants that day had made posts online that were later deleted or edited. Thankfully, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine had taken screenshots of different social posts and videos before they were removed. Many journalists used these to trace back to original messaging, along with legal teams who used these materials in their cases.
If it isn’t clear, the themes are archival are largely important and, I think, not valued enough. It feels relevant now more than ever; preservation, documentation, and information accessibility are foundational for surviving the attack on our democracy, as it stands now. The first step to fighting this battle is to understand the importance of digital archival and impermanence. And luckily, we can lean on independent organizations to take this head-on.
On a more personal level, I think the idea of media impermanence can encourage us to change our behavior in a few ways. First, on becoming more intentional about what we choose to preserve and how we approach preservation. As an example, instead of using Instagram as a digital archive, we could consider hard drive storage, printing photos, or creating scrapbooks. Secondly, we can reframe our role in the digital age. While you consume media, you are not only a consumer but also a creator. Whether you want to believe it or not, you are an active participant in digital culture. From the moment you search for something, to posting something. To take this one step further, you can also become a steward of memory and culture. We can all support organizations that are working tirelessly to do this, while also sharing the concept that not all data lasts forever with our communities. In the video below, Carole explains this briefly at 11:00 minutes.
If the average person spends 7 hours a day online, adding up to more than 21 years over a lifetime, we owe it to ourselves to understand how information lives and dies online. We also owe it to future generations to preserve the truth, our stories, and history.
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Other notable links:
As the Trump administration purges web pages, this group is rushing to save them