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Honestly, a lot of what you have to say make sense, it does... But then I remember that I still have the emails my wife exchanged almost ten years ago when we
by incongruity 13y ago
Honestly, a lot of what you have to say make sense, it does... But then I remember that I still have the emails my wife exchanged almost ten years ago when we first met - and occasionally I do look back at those. And I fall in love with her all over again.
And then there are the random musings from friends who have died or any of a dozen other, slightly less big deal reasons to look back -- and I realize that in fact, those old conversations do matter, to me, often in unpredictable ways.
Your mileage may well vary, but I'd be truly sad if I lost those bits of history. Moreover, I wish I had access to that sort of an archive from my parents or grandparents... So maybe it'll be interesting to my kids. Maybe not. But the thing is, I don't know what's really going to matter and when disk space (on this scale especially) is a so cheap, it seems foolish not to save it.
- privong 13y ago> And I fall income with her all over again. Glorious, glorious (auto-correct) typos! :)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- JunkDNA 13y agoAgree with this completely. My father died when I was 23. Being a digital packrat, I have every personal email I've ever sent or received. He wrote me quite regularly throughout college and I have all of those emails. All the life lessons and little bits of encouragement. My kids will never know their grandpa, but someday maybe we can share these together and they can learn a bit more about the kind of man he was in his own words, without my filter. They might also like some of the historically interesting ones like: "Mike, check out this new store: http://www.amazon.com http://www.amazon.com I think it's going to be popular. --Dad"
- elwell 13y agoVery good point.
- foobarian 13y agoPeople may or may not tend to hoarding stuff. For those who do, though, hoarding bits sure is a lot easier than hoarding physical possessions.
- tunap 13y agoThat is one of the points from a book I read recently. His tech advice other than digital archiving was questionable, but all in all, a good read: http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Guide-Minimalist-Life/dp/1449556825 http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Guide-Minimalist-Life/dp/144955...
- sliverstorm 13y agowhen disk space (on this scale especially) is a so cheap, it seems foolish not to save it. This is the critical part for me. I delete the crap because it makes searching harder, but I currently spend $0.01/month backing up every email I've ever exchanged with my loved ones. Maybe I'll never need them, but at $1.20/decade, why would I not stash them? (It is, of course, all automated)
- sjs382 13y agoMy fiance and I recently went through a bunch of our first emails and chat logs and laughed about it. The effort needed to keep this stuff is almost nil, so why not?