[€uroMeinke]

At one time we were called a nation of joiners. People belonged to Bowling clubs, fraternal societies, knitting circles, etc. in many ways I think this is what replaced that.

I think also the anonimity of the internet is fading. We all strive to protect our privacy but more and more of our "private" lives are being carried out in public and available for the scutiny of those willing to search. I think of the whole Lonelygirl phenomena, a media experiemnt that was quickly revealed as fiction. The story I linked to above is also a sobering reminder that the "safety of your own home" illusion is just that.

At one time historians feared that this would become a blank era as the electrons holding our correspondance vanished with the next power outage. But it seems our electronic selves has a presence afterall. If anything future historians will have an overwhellming amount of information of how we live our lives today.

Like anything, it's still fragile as Wendybeth noted, but such is the way of progress, more is preserved as we move forward - but moving backwards could distil it all to landfills full of monitors and hard drives.