RIP2GIFs
The article by Vanishing Culture discusses the history of GIFs and how they have seemed to phase out since the early days of the internet. While Internet culture today is very different from the Web 1.0 era, to us now, who did not experience this era would not even occur to us that the original concept is not the same as the original idea. The article, posted on an internet archive blog, discusses how digital preservation has changed since.
What Happened to The Computer Room?
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A part of the article that stood out to me was the mention of the computer room. The article states, “The idea of having a designated space in your home where you engage with the digital world is old-fashioned. “I miss the computer room.” While I did grow up with a computer room, time flew by. I never fully noticed that the room in my house really has no purpose anymore, as we can bring the internet into any corner of the room. The internet has grown from a simple one-website experience to all sorts of confusing and complex experiences. Growing up with the internet, it is something that I didn’t really pay much attention to, but in retrospect, it is concerning how quickly we’ve advanced from Web Era 1 to Web Era 3.
Preservation Today
However, when I think about the preservation of GIFs, my mind immediately drifts to how much better today's GIFs are much better preserved, with dedicated wikis and importance to Twitter users! The article states, “But when we preserve and revisit the remnants of digital culture’s recent history, it behooves us to remember that this networked realm, as imperfect and as frustrating as it can feel sometimes, is what we make it.” Society almost naturally plays the role of preserving aspects of the modern internet. Another example that comes to mind is old Vine videos, still existing in the form of YouTube compilations, Wikis, and every once in a while, referenced in a TikTok. The culture of today's internet, while unlike anything in the past, is almost self-sufficient in preservation, while media do go out of style, the human memory, and the community of several million people, can often find anything.
