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The internet is an ever-evolving beast; dynamic, constantly updating, and quite ephemeral. An old article suddenly goes missing, hyperlinks yield 404 errors, or an entire URL changes unexpectedly. This digital decay, indeed, sparks concerns about the continuity of our culture when the internet starts to pull a disappearing act. This article explores the implications and dynamics of internet content volatility.
What Happens When Content Vanishes
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Every few days, emails from students, activists, researchers, journalists, or simple internet users beeline for me. They express dismay and concern about an article of mine they can no longer find online. For some, it’s a bookmark they often revisit. For others, they’re trying to trace back an idea to its source. The phenomenon is not unique to me but is widespread across the digital landscape.
According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 38% of webpages from 2013 are not accessible today. Webpages are taken down, URLs change, and entire websites disappear — just like the case of certain scientific journals vanishing, taking along with them vital research.
Existential Crisis in the Age of Digital Decay
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As a writer, inaccessibility to one’s creative works sparks both a professional and identity crisis. In the current content era and creator economy, we are all to some extent “content creators”. But as the internet’s ebb and flow reshape its landscape, our digital footprints, cultural phenomena, and even our memes can slip away and get lost. And so, while it is often said that “the internet is forever,” everything we put out there can disappear as if it never existed.
Contributing to Digital Disappearance
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The rise and fall of web platforms, propelled by the whims of private equity or burnout, or changes in time contribute to this drift. Furthermore, in this era of overly used AI in all corners of the internet, we’ve unfortunately been feeding this beast unknowingly. Every bit of data we provide, freely or inadvertently, is fuel for the AI machinery to churn out more digital detritus.
Losing Control to Digital Archives
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There’s a certain loss of sovereignty in watching humans be replaced by AI and inherently unstable digital storage. Archival management decisions are often made by “the winners”, leaving others feeling neglected and easily discarded. The result? A choking heap of digital waste and misinformation that could drastically obscure our culture’s clear image for the future generations.
Redifining our Digital Legacy
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The discourse around what we value and believe should be kept, and what should be allowed to be washed away, has never been more relevant. These decisions will shape the future of our culture. We need to empower a diverse body of people – workers, journalists, private equity, AI, and archivists, to say what gets to be apart of that future. We need to consider how comfortable we are with the disappearance of careers and artistic pursuits and carefully reassess our digital legacy.
Conclusion
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Things feel real when we live through them. So, observing our digital creations crumbling to oblivion can be quite disconcerting for anyone. While we acknowledge that not everything on the internet will always be there, it’s crucial we confront this reality. When the dust of time settles, how we define ourselves now will determine the shape of our future culture.