Tech | July 22, 2010 | 26 comments

The Web Means the End of Forgetting

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pjacobs51
The challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe, is how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever. With Web sites like LOL Facebook Moments, which collects and shares embarrassing personal revelations from Facebook users, ill-advised photos and online chatter are coming back to haunt people months or years after the fact.

Real life examples at the link . . .


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?ref=technology
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26 comments // The Web Means the End of Forgetting

  • Mikeysfake1
  • artemis6
    • +1
      artemis6  
    • When books and printing came along , people lost their long memories . Honetslt , I think TV made them even shorter , It dependes on how fragmented things are , on how well the cross indexing gets and stays . We'll see .

    • 1 year ago
  • mario_a
  • pjacobs51
    • +1
      pjacobs51  
    • mario_a:

      There are more than likely, quite a few cases that go "unreported." Even my son had a "near mis" when he started his new teaching career at a local high school. After the school board had run their background check, he was asked to delete a tagged pic of him with a brown bottle being held to his mouth from facebook. It was in their eyes, "not a suitable picture for a teacher." I have seen this picture myself, and the funny thing is, the bottle in question was a bottle of A-1 sauce.

      A clear case of "not forgetting," even the whimsical.

    • 1 year ago
  • bailey78
    • +2
      bailey78  
    • The internet will never forget what it learns . What ever you put out there is there forever an ever isn't that just great?

    • 1 year ago
  • Colin_McCabe
    • +1
      Colin_McCabe  
    • What's frightening is that they have the storage just lying around to archive tweets and facebook posts and all of that, do we get a choice? NO
      that's why my twitter and facebook fall under 2 different names, take that google and library of congress

    • 1 year ago
  • PressCore
    • +1
      PressCore  
    • http://Current.com

      Here's a thought. Question: Does the Current.com organization
      archive all the articles posted on from day 1 of it's existence ?
      The format has changed, but has all the content remained ?
      Any thoughts on this, pjacobs 51 ? I'm a 49er, so this isn't my
      1st BBQ either. But I realy would like to research ther totality
      of web pages that can be retrieved. Catching quality news is
      like catching salmon swimming upsteam in the fast moving
      current. If you don't land them, the readers won't digest them.

    • 1 year ago
  • pjacobs51
    • +1
      pjacobs51  
    • PressCore:

      I've been here a few years, and have posted some 3000 times, and I can always search and find my previous articles. But, yes some of the links to the sources of those articles are "no longer available" so there are missing links in the chain.

    • 1 year ago
  • ThoughtNu
    • +2
      ThoughtNu  
    • Admittedly , I am by no means a computer expert ; but I wonder, where all the data from the 90's is. Da ole lady needs a pattern to replace my parachute pants... , if the internet 'never forgets' where are the 'old pages'? Why ,when I do a search that doesn't include some political event or academic paper... nothing returns from more than a few years old?

    • 1 year ago
  • dou4u2
  • Naumadd
    • +3
      Naumadd  
    • I can understand being nervous for one's character that the internet faithfully remembers one's flaws. Although I too have some concerns in that regard, in my mind, the fact the internet remembers so much also means that one is less likely to be forgotten entirely. THAT is a tremendous value.

      It is a tragedy for any human being to have lived but for there to be no or very little record of that life. More and more I'm finding one great value in an active online life is the fact that one's "spirit" can live on beyond the self through the contributions one makes to the human record stored and preserved in "the cloud". As a writer, I'm all too aware of the tremendous value in recording one's thoughts that they might have a life of their own. So too, recording one's thoughts and feelings, one's wishes or hopes and vision for what might be in whatever form - words, photos, recordings, video, artwork, etc. - when taken in total serve to create a virtual version of one's self which either in a cohesive collection or in scattered bits continues to influence others and help to build whatever is to come in the future. It's an "immortality" of sorts. One's life can continue to count for something more than it might have without that record and long after one has passed.

      Yes, the internet may remember things one wishes would pass quietly away, but perhaps it may also remember the good things and that is certainly worth saving.

      No one - no one - should be forgotten. Perhaps the internet is ensuring that far fewer of us will be.

    • 1 year ago
  • Tartessos
    • 0
      Tartessos  
    • Naumadd:

      You make some excellent points. Additionally, we are living in an area where you more or less cannot lose contact with the people you know unless you choose to. There are a great many people from my past who I miss dearly and cannot locate, but no one need experience that anymore.

    • 1 year ago
  • ampersand
    • +3
      ampersand  
    • The dangers of having real, or even distorted, information about one distributed and used on the internet against your knowledge or interests, are huge, and ever-present.

      All of us here implicitly trust current.com and other sites to maintain our privacy and not to abuse it themselves, AFTER the fact we have given up that information.
      It's not AT ALL likely the modest ethical safeguards for the use and abuse of that information will remain in place over time in all cases.

      It may very well be that it is constantly abused, in one way or another, in most all cases.
      That would, in our shared sad modern experience, actually be more true to form in large contemporary business and government practice.

    • 1 year ago
  • islek
    • +2
      islek  
    • Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites have become so integrated into the lives of the masses now that some things that occur on or through them actually do make the news. Since so many people use it, it has become a relevant topic for news reporters... whether we like it or not.

      But here's a thought: there is such a constant stream of content and information online that, while it's true that past posts and photos can remain on the Web for years, many people do tend to "forget" about those things because there is so much information coming at us all the time.

      I guess the Web could mean the end of forgetting permanently. We can always be reminded!

    • 1 year ago
  • tommytripper
    • +1
      tommytripper  
    • what a miss leading statement,

      when something can be edited on a whim and then becomes common "speak" rather then fact, it is not forgetting it is an easy method to change or alter history perspective and opinion.

      the web is a double edge sword, it has the chance to create and promote knowledge and change. but it can also be used against anyone trying to step out of the status quo.

      when you are always connected and trust companies like google to guide you to information, you will find their interests govern what you find. – example BP

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • tommytripper
    • +1
      tommytripper  
    • Image
    • tommytripper:

      this is a direct copy and only proves the very point i made 7 days ago, read the whole thing. - copied from cbc.ca

      A Defence Department spokesperson confirms computers at the department's research agency were used to alter a Wikipedia page entry about the Joint Strike Fighter jet and the Conservative government's decision to spend as much as $18 billion on the aircraft.

      Those edits included the removal of information critical of the government's plan to buy the jets and the addition of insulting comments aimed at Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

      As first reported in a story by Postmedia, Wikipedia traced the edits to computers owned by Defence Research Development Canada's Ottawa offices. Wikipedia locked down the entry, labelled the changes as vandalism and only allowed recognized editors to work on the page.

      In one entry, all information outlining the criticism of the jets and the plan to buy them was removed. In another, someone added that Ignatieff thought the deal to buy the planes for Canada was an "awesome, amazing decision to proceed with this contract." In reality, Ignatieff has been critical of the sole-source contract, calling for a reconvening of the defence committee to examine the decision.

      Another version of the entry inserted that Ignatieff has six toes on each foot.

      Ignatieff said the incidents show the government has "something to hide."

      Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/07/29/wikipedia-dnd.html#ixzz0vAsmWZ4n

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • dalistuff
  • Omnomynous
    • +1
      Omnomynous  
    • Not true and not news...

      this line right here;

      "With Web sites like LOL Facebook Moments, which collects and shares embarrassing personal revelations from Facebook users, ill-advised photos and online chatter are coming back to haunt people months or YEARS after the fact.

      I think most of us learned to quit sending nude photos to strangers along enough time ago that it shouldn't matter. That and those seeking to post other things of a controversial nature have learned to do so under conditions of anonymity, and if you haven't I hate it for you.

    • 1 year ago
  • pjacobs51
  • Incredulous
    • +1
      Incredulous  
    • How is this a Current.com permalink when you have to log in and create an account with the NYTimes just to read the story? WTF Current? More site promotion?

      you can google the title if you want to read without a NYT account.

    • 1 year ago
  • pjacobs51
  • PressCore
    • +1
      PressCore  
    • pjacobs51:

      Wasn't that fact of never forgetting exactly what made the net such
      an awesome success ? I was a psyche major in college. And have read
      realy solid books on hypnosis. I still own them ! I never watch TV for "news"
      because I see what it does to others' minds. TV fills people's minds like a
      shot glass, then empties them out in the same way to make room for just
      another shot glass full of what susbstitutes for hard core news. On the net
      you can do genuine research, and find things you might have seen once
      long ago, and which slipped away from your recall, but not your memory. Or
      you can find things you never saw, and which few people even know exist.
      That makes people in the know special over the ignorant. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is freedom. That's why I blog and Email blog, and keep a backup
      hard drive. Elephants never forget.

    • 1 year ago
  • pjacobs51
  • PressCore
    • +1
      PressCore  
    • pjacobs51:

      http://cueernt.com

      Agreed. You know, I've gotten into the habit of blogging, Email blogging
      and bookmarking every current.com article and the article it's linked to
      (so long as it bears any importance to me).Though the net don't forget,
      sometimes in the Tron Races of cyberspace, some web pages simply
      can't be easily recalled, if at all. Not being a webmaster, it's still a very
      significant problem. My older 530 Inspiron's been replaced with a 560
      with Windows 7 from Vista, a 1 Terrabyte hard drive,so it's faster than
      before, has more space. With Road Runner basic (which pours like mollasses
      in a deep freeze) even with my kit being amped up better than before,
      I've gotten error messages, messages saying page cannot be found, etc..
      on at least 10% of all the content I've seen, if I don't save it 3 times over,
      and use a back up hard drive to preserve it against main hard drive failure,
      I don't count on it to be retrieved when comes time to review it. As you've
      mentioned, an up side, and a down side, like a sin wave. It comes with
      the territory, at this early stage of net evolution..We still need better
      technology, more compatibility, more fool proof methods.

    • 1 year ago
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