Preserving the Now

With so much of our lives being lived out online there couldn't be a better time to look at archiving what's happening to us. None of us know what will happen to our digital lives once we've left this world and very little is known about the future-proofing plans for the big social media companies.

We live in a volatile time with events that are affecting us every day. Our news plays live online, the first time we hear of anything is normally when we log onto our social media. The amount of data that we put out there is endless and, at some point in the future, will be the digital version of an archaeological dig.

So why do we need to preserve what's out there? For one, much of it comes from ordinary people. People whose lives may, to many, seem mundane but are as fascinating as anyone of note. In the future it may be their thoughts and opinions that are sought out rather than those of someone more well known. And, with so very many niche interests, it's often the person you're least likely to think of who will have the information that you need.

This was one of the myriad of reasons for collecting music fans stories and putting them into a series of books. Fans are often a goldmine of information and obscure knowledge. As well as that, we also live in an age where music is more freely available than it's ever been before, allowing people to find, and connect, with bands and musicians from around the globe. These connections have positive effects on a person's life and often help to prevent suicide, abuse, and other downward spirals. To be able to put that positivity into words and share it with the world should be a right rather than a privilege.

Putting your life story into book form and preserving it in libraries and archives is still one of the best ways to preserve information. Thanks to the preservation process we have books that have survived thousands of years and, in doing so, allow us a portal into generations that came before us. You may think that you have nothing of value to say but none of us know what future generations of researchers will be looking for. As a writer of both fiction and non-fiction I can safely say that I've looked some very obscure information and found it thanks to someone who, at some point in the past, made the decision to write it down.

It would be a great shame if, a hundred years from now, a lot of of what we're seeing online was to be lost. There are plans to capture more of your stories. If you'd like to stay up to date with current book calls, please feel free to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. I'd love to talk to you in the not too distant future.