The rise of social media has made possible the transmission of information at a fast pace. Online platforms has allowed us to share vital information, and even extremely personal experiences, at a click of a button. We link. We connect. We Tweet. We post statuses.
However, a recent study by a pair of researchers in Virginia revealed that many of the links shared, especially in Twitter, are gradually being lost and replaced by new information. After scouring through the data, and looking for the original source of links being shared online, the researchers discovered that an alarming 30% of the useful links have vanished in just two and a half years.
The report did not make it clear how or why the information shared online have disappeared. Some of the explanations suggest that the websites may have simply moved to a new address, or the blogs have been closed down, a few web pages turning inactive.
However, many web technology experts argue that the resources being shared online, especially those with significant historical and societal impacts like what happened in the Arab Spring revolution, are valuable in understanding the timeline of world events.
Many are already proposing national libraries across the globe to store copies of webpages in a digital archive.
Unfortunately, gleaning data is especially difficult. Twitter’s search engine does not display an easy way to navigate through old tweets, especially those over two weeks old. Only on special cases can social data actually be shared to individuals (e.g. Andy Carvin of the NPR who is writing a book about how the Arap Spring transpired).
Data in cybersphere is decaying at a fast pace. Many of this information are crucial for having recorded pivotal moments in history. How the loss of this data will impact society in the next few year is yet to be seen. Nevertheless, the seemingly ephemeral quality of our online data are already alarming web experts, historians, researchers, and government officials.
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