Simple Girl In A Complex Technological World

So confession, I absolutely love the movie Back To The Future. The idea that someone can go back in time and change so much about what will happen in the future. Obviously real world science hasn’t come up with a time traveling Delorean but there is another way to go back in time… by way of online archives.

Going back via the online archives won’t let you change the future but it gives the chance to see what a site may have looked like in years past or look at the front page stories of the time. But what happens when a story is removed or not archived at all? If a story was printed, it exists until the paper it was printed in is destroyed but online, a few simple clicks and it never existed or a few edits and the facts are changed.

It is a bit eerie that publications have the power to make it seem that some stories never happened and it brings about thoughts of 1984 in that aspect but the fact is, this does really happen. Stories are removed everyday online whether it be because of public outcry or simply time to make room for newer stories. The question is, should online editors delete the past? My opinion is no because every article and piece of news history deserves to remain online or to be documented and moved to print so that future generations can look back on the news articles of our time (no matter how unimportant they may seem)

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