In my paper today there is an article about a new website started by a father who wants to preserve his kids photos. he was afraid that if he put them on a website like Facebook or on a disc, they might get lost. If he kept them on his computer maybe the harddrive would crash.
Here's my problem with people today. Yes, that can happen. And yes, a photo site might go out of business, & yes Kodak dumped Kodachrome. But that's not the only type of film. And guess what? If you print the photos, they will last a long time. I have 30 year old color prints in a photo album. I have 70 year old black and white prints. Does everything have to be online?
Seriously. People are so into technology that they forget there are other ways to preserve memories. It's like books. Last summer I saw at my local branch of the public library very old editions of multiple volumes of the Rise & Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons. They were obviously old, so I looked inside. They were printed in the 1920's! The actual Declaration of Independence is in Washington. You can preserve real stuff. The obsession with "the cloud" is silly.
Yes, let's preserve stuff digitally. But let's not pretend if you don't it will go away. Physical is always better. What happens if a new format comes along & all these digitally preserved things are suddenly no longer available?
Here's my problem with people today. Yes, that can happen. And yes, a photo site might go out of business, & yes Kodak dumped Kodachrome. But that's not the only type of film. And guess what? If you print the photos, they will last a long time. I have 30 year old color prints in a photo album. I have 70 year old black and white prints. Does everything have to be online?
Seriously. People are so into technology that they forget there are other ways to preserve memories. It's like books. Last summer I saw at my local branch of the public library very old editions of multiple volumes of the Rise & Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons. They were obviously old, so I looked inside. They were printed in the 1920's! The actual Declaration of Independence is in Washington. You can preserve real stuff. The obsession with "the cloud" is silly.
Yes, let's preserve stuff digitally. But let's not pretend if you don't it will go away. Physical is always better. What happens if a new format comes along & all these digitally preserved things are suddenly no longer available?
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