Lecture 2 - Life, Death and Internet History

As a person studying to be a primary school teacher, I am well aware of the influence that technology has on the lives of all people, particularly children. Children born in the 21st century have grown up alongside developing technology and the expectation of instantaneous gratification through their use of technological devices. I, on the other hand, have really only started to embrace and appreciate the full functionality of technological devices, particularly the computer and internet, in the past few years.

When reading the article, 'The Life and Death of Online Communities', it dawned on me that although I was in high school throughout the life of GeoCities I have no recollection of the site and would have continued being blissfully ignorant had fate not stepped in. According to the article, the concept of the early social networking site, GeoCities, provided a 'blue print' for other social networking sites, such as Facebook, a site that I have familiarised myself with over the past few years. If it weren't for the GeoCities article written by Phoebe Connelly I would have been none the wiser about the demise of GeoCities in October, 2009 and still wrongly assuming that internet sites and content are 'immortal'.

With the GeoCities article in mind, I feel the need to ask the following questions, will this be the experience people encounter when Facebook runs the gauntlet of its technological life? Should we make more of an effort to preserve the history of the internet in order to better understand technology, human interaction and its role in society? Archiving and preserving internet history '... has the promise of being a key resource for historians and those who study the Web itself' (Thelwall & Vaughan, 2004). Beneath the inane chatter stored on various social networking sites, lie informative and valuable clues about modern communication, social order and culture. In my personal opinion, we would be foolish not to archive internet history for the education of future generations.

Connelly, P. (2009). How online communities are born and what happens when they die. The American Prospect. Retrieved January 18, 2011, from http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=neo_cities

Thelwall, M., & Vaughan, L. (2004). A fair history of the web? Examining country balance in the internet archive. Library and Information Science Research, 26(2), 162-176.