Future Research
14 Trillion Photos Annually!
No one knows how long digital data will last or what technology will be used to access it in 25 or 100 years.
Extensive research in the current state of the storage of our digital lives led me to an alarming conclusion. There is little concentrated effort to preserve, protect, and provide access to this information. We have to understand that the preservation of, and access to, that data is essential to the future of the human story.
The internet, in combination with cell phones, has fundamentally changed the methods humans use to communicate. Handwritten documents are no longer being created, so what will historians use as evidence of what we are doing now?
The world is creating billions of pieces of new data every day. In 2017 it was estimated that over 14 Trillion photos were taken every year. There is no concerted effort to preserve them, or any of our online lives.
I have included the annotated bibliography here so you can view the source material.