The longevity and breath of the internet

[tsumik]

So my best friend househead mentioned to me yesterday and as posted in his journal about googling people and seeing what comes up. Now as a person who find some of the most obscure infomation in record time on google I've known that a lot of our lives are out in the internet ether. As people become more and more dependent on computers and become more comfortable using them more of us becomes 1's and 0's stored in the giant web space.
But this space isn't like the real world or at least doesn't follow a lot of the same rules about decay and memory. Being such the computer geek since five quite a bit of "stuff" about me is out there. Random snippets in my life thrown around scattered like a bunch of stones on a beach. Eventually it will all just be sand grains that are not that more unique then the next. So for awhile there I was like an awkward teenager with their identity, full of a lot of trial and error, mistakes, and not totally accurate me out there much to my cringing. Cause we were still trying to find ourselves so those memories are not exactly ones we want people to go rifling through much like our childhood photo albums. But just like as we grow older we care less about what's out there about us and in fact embrace it as it defines who we are and how we became that person. The scars are no longer unsightly but in fact badges to say I've been there, done that, and had that happen to me. Cause it helps us have a wider range of common ground with those we seek out in the world.
But the part that still gets me a little is finding remenants of people online that no longer exist. Echos and fingerprint freshly left of people who have passed away. I should have know with as much as I spulunk around the internet I'd run into these places. More sands of history just this time it comes in a digital format.
But can you imagine perhaps some day we'll see digital archeologists. People learning about our past from the fragmented data tucked away on misc hard drives on servers and computers in basement of buildings. Googling people will taken on a whole new meaning.

Comments

[moober.livejournal.com]

I have googled myself, and there are several other people with my name. While that's a little unusual in itself, as my name's not all that common, the other people with my name are interested or involved in similar things that I would have been involved in over the course of my life. It's a little crazy.

[1ginacolada.livejournal.com]

This is so interesting. I love the concept of a digital archealogist. And no, I don't think we are so far off, either.

[househead.livejournal.com]

Best Friend....Me? *bays eyes* how flattering

[mooneyshine.livejournal.com]

huh... I never thought of a "digital archeologist."

Now I'm feelin like I should delete my journal. haha.

[angiebear.livejournal.com]

I've googled you before, Erich. hehe.