Do I really want the net to forget my teenage self? | Aeon Essays

Sometimes online communities make wikis or YouTube explainers to keep track of certain storylines, but many seem to persist without ever being recorded. Shared memory is often maintained in ways that don’t translate to the readable archives produced by print-based textual tradition. On some level, this feels paradoxical, like the internet should ac... See more

He sighs and hangs his head. “I’m a programmer, but there was nothing I could do. Once stuff is up there, it sticks around, you know? Follows you and it won’t go away.” “Actually, I’ve been having the opposite experience,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll search for something, and the information I’m looking for is there one minute, and then the next minu

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The shifting sands of digital technology have robbed our collections of their meaning. They appear only as nostalgic ruins, the remains of once-inhabited metropolises gone silent. Many of the images I once shared on Tumblr are now broken links. I could have downloaded these collections in their prime and made sure I could always access them, but th

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1. On the internet, we are always living in the past.

The mechanics of this permanent state of retrofuturism are simple: if you have access to detailed data about the behaviour of people, editorial control over what information people receive (as social or search recommendation engines), and the means to nudge people using designed affordances then ... See more