The .txtual Condition

For me, one of the most interesting parts of this piece was the was the usage of the word “archive” in the English language has changed to reflect some of the technological advances that came with the 20th century. Typically when I hear the word archive, or think of an archivist, they seem like concepts that I am so far removed from. Despite being aware of the increasing amounts of data created by ours phones and computers and some of the problems that come along with storing and recording it, there never was a link for me between preserving this data and archives. While I think it’s interesting to consider how to store, access, and engage with this information, to a degree I also wonder how much value is added by doing so. In some cases, I think certain behaviors haven’t changed, but we now have a bigger capacity to store information, and I don’t know that it will always bring about new insights.