Comments on: Preserving Memories: Paper Wins

By: david bogie

david bogie — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:14:25 +0000

If you want something to last, carve it in stone.

I have 8″ floppies from a Wang no one on Earth can open. I have stacks of Wordperfect files on Zip carts that are next to worthless. I have forty year-old notebooks from high school I can open and read at any moment. I have 8mm and 16mm film 40-70 years old that still projects a high rez image. I have photographs from my great grandparents taken and printed 100 years ago. On the back of each one, in lovely Spencerian, is a description of the location or event and all of the people are identified.

Your great grandchildren will look at your DVDs and wonder what priceless memories they hold. Your thousands of untagged photos, even if they can be read, will only pose more questions.

david boise ID

By: Brooke

Brooke — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:48:33 +0000

The Huffington poster can’t access papers on a floppy disk? Um, a USB floppy drive (and a Word workaround) should clear that right up. I have papers I wrote in 1989 available to me on my MacBook Pro.

However, I’ve been keeping a journal for 25 years, so I heartily agree with the spirit of this post. Anyone who reads my journals will never wonder what I was thinking! There are few things in life of which I am more proud than my journals (kept mainly in notebooks, natch!).

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:54:12 +0000

My partner is always saying this exact thing to me. She wants to be able to hold something in her hand for years ahead.

By: Spangle

Spangle — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:48:12 +0000

I had never really thought about how technology is erasing memories, until I read this article.

I keep a journal from time to time and I thought that it was only for personal use. However, I realise how important it is to record events, even of the most mundane, to preserve the fact that I existed.

This is an interesting post.