NickDawson.net

I have been thinking a lot lately about the relative importance of social media. Actually, I have been thinking about history. Really, what we know about history is what was recorded by the people who thought those particular details were favorable or important. What’s the old saying? History is written by the victors. In a sense, the same thing is true for recent history; take family for example. What do we really know about what our parents were like in high school?  I am inclined to believe my parents were pretty cool cats. I have seen pictures of them before prom, football uniforms and signed yearbooks. But the truth is that I was not there. The truth is that I am seeing their history as told by the victors.

Now think about this – think about all the kids growing up in the socially networked generation. What happens when they grow up and have families of their own? Who gets to tell the history when it was already been documented live in real time? Its a mind-bender isn’t it? The children of the next generation, maybe even my kids, will have a digital history of our entire lives. Everything we posted, tweeted, flickred, youtubed, regretted, liked, friended, faned…. it will all be there. That embarrassing night in college, videos from our wedding, tweets about the first job. Imagine the internet as the scrapbook of the future. What will our kids find when they google us?

As I started thinking more about the idea – and indeed the importance of the concept itself – it made more sense (at least to my twisted brain) to explore it graphically:

To that end, you’ll probably enjoy this presentation in full screen here