Commenting a couple years late now, but this is something I think about a lot, and so it was very exciting to read your article! Re: the archival and retrieval of memes -- it makes sense that their shelf lives are short so there may not be a lot of value to preserving them (or alll of them maybe). But I've also started thinking about what other criteria could play into this decision of preserving (at least at the personal level that we can, e.g. by storing things we like on hard drives or whatever) vs. not. Other than longevity, I mean.
Over the last few years for instance, I've started downloading and keeping films I love on a hard-drive, organised by tags such as genre, film movement, etc. I think this is a little less because of the longevity of films as a whole, and more about how personally formative and impactful these movies have been. I used to try and keep e-copies or hard copies of the books I loved too, but I switched to keeping sorted lists of books I love instead. I guess I have some sort of trust that the institution of libraries will still be around in and after my lifetime. That trust changes my approach to archiving.
I'm curious if you also have some other criteria you think along the lines of when thinking about preservation!
I love the hard drive idea and also the list is so nice and compact. I have literally no way to think about this and I have lost all control over what I have where. The only thing I hate a hard stance on is books, which I buy physically and hoard.
Commenting a couple years late now, but this is something I think about a lot, and so it was very exciting to read your article! Re: the archival and retrieval of memes -- it makes sense that their shelf lives are short so there may not be a lot of value to preserving them (or alll of them maybe). But I've also started thinking about what other criteria could play into this decision of preserving (at least at the personal level that we can, e.g. by storing things we like on hard drives or whatever) vs. not. Other than longevity, I mean.
Over the last few years for instance, I've started downloading and keeping films I love on a hard-drive, organised by tags such as genre, film movement, etc. I think this is a little less because of the longevity of films as a whole, and more about how personally formative and impactful these movies have been. I used to try and keep e-copies or hard copies of the books I loved too, but I switched to keeping sorted lists of books I love instead. I guess I have some sort of trust that the institution of libraries will still be around in and after my lifetime. That trust changes my approach to archiving.
I'm curious if you also have some other criteria you think along the lines of when thinking about preservation!
I love the hard drive idea and also the list is so nice and compact. I have literally no way to think about this and I have lost all control over what I have where. The only thing I hate a hard stance on is books, which I buy physically and hoard.