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Losing memory via attrition is certainly a concern. But I think the bigger concern is losing memory via censorship and copyright. For most people, the internet

Losing memory via attrition is certainly a concern. But I think the bigger concern is losing memory via censorship and copyright. For most people, the internet is now google search and a couple of social media companies. Google has been curating search results for a while now. We no longer see what is out there in the internet, but a narrow google approved view of the internet. For example, 10 years ago, google showed us the entire elephant ( more or less ), today, we only get to see the tail or the trunk or whichever part of the elephant google decides to frame. Now all of the social media companies are now curating. And with the loss of neutrality, ISPs will undoubtedly curate. And then there is the copyright issues where archiving is getting more difficult. Kids today don't know what a great tool google cache was because it's gone. And archiving sites are being attack from news, media, politicians, etc. In other words, the internet dark age isn't going to be a result of formats getting old ( though that is an issue ). It's going to be a result of us only being allowed to see through the frame that a handful of companies deem appropriate. The dark ages didn't happen because formats got old. The dark ages happened because the powerful decided that we should view the world within a certain narrow religious frame and censored everything else.

rezeroed 8y ago
In the olden days, everyone was slapping together their own websites, rather than using the same old templated wordpress, hugo, etc, so there was far more character, and not everything was a blog. And so people surfed the web. These days the web is more purpose oriented, people looking for something, the "surfing" all within walls, wave pools.
- floren 8y ago
  The days of the web ring, which often as not was broken or took you through dozens of content-free sites but could occasionally drop you into something fantastic. Browsing Internet Directories. Just plain finding some guy's massive meticulously-maintained HTML-only site full of fascinating articles, bookmarking it, slowly working your way through it over the course of your evening browsing sessions.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > These days the web is more purpose oriented, people looking for something It also does its best to make that difficult. Advertisers luring people away from what they were doing. Content marketers spamming the web to the point that a regular person is more likely to be trapped in some bullshit low-quality clickbait article than to get correct information. You need to be hyper-focused just to get what you're looking for.

rezeroed 8y ago

In the olden days, everyone was slapping together their own websites, rather than using the same old templated wordpress, hugo, etc, so there was far more character, and not everything was a blog. And so people surfed the web. These days the web is more purpose oriented, people looking for something, the "surfing" all within walls, wave pools.

floren 8y ago
The days of the web ring, which often as not was broken or took you through dozens of content-free sites but could occasionally drop you into something fantastic. Browsing Internet Directories. Just plain finding some guy's massive meticulously-maintained HTML-only site full of fascinating articles, bookmarking it, slowly working your way through it over the course of your evening browsing sessions.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> These days the web is more purpose oriented, people looking for something It also does its best to make that difficult. Advertisers luring people away from what they were doing. Content marketers spamming the web to the point that a regular person is more likely to be trapped in some bullshit low-quality clickbait article than to get correct information. You need to be hyper-focused just to get what you're looking for.