The Recorded Generation

ckck:

Most of us, depending on our age, are fortunate if we have photos from when our parents were young, even more so of our grandparents when they were younger. As someone whose grandfathers would have been 99 and 114 years old this year had they still been alive, I have very few records from back then because for the average working-class family it just wasn’t common to own a camera. Of my great-grandparents I have nothing except for written records of that they existed.

Imagine if you could see photos, films and read the thoughts of our grandparents and great-grandparents, just think of how amazing that would be?

As amazing as that would be for us now living in 2009, this will be the reality for our own great-grandchildren, grandchildren and maybe even children. The digital and internet revolution may not mark the absolute start of the first recorded generation, but it has allowed us to share ourselves in abundance online to anyone who finds us, whereas not long ago this was confined to private dairies and family albums.

In the future our great-grandchildren, who we might never get to meet, will be able to read in our blogs about our daily lives from back when we were young, read about what it was like to live in this day and age, and see photos and videos of us from throughout our lives. They will be able to glimpse back in time in a way that is impossible for us, and I can only imagine what a profound impact that will have.