I'm still feeling sick and having taken the afternoon off I decided to wander around Google Groups newly extended usenet archive.
Google Groups has a timeline page which lists various historical events as they were posted on usenet and it struck me that viewing these snapshots in the familiar Google browser page layout betrayed the actual age of the posts in a way that makes them feel as if they had just been posted yesterday. The web seems to neutralise the context or background to the event or posting in a way that doesn't happen with conventional print media.
I have a couple of special edition reprints of old newspapers, one from two days after Titanic sank and a couple more recent - I find them fascinating to read. What you get reading old newspaper stories in their original printed form is a real sense of the other things that were happening at the time, the advertising, clothes, hairstyles, TV guides etc. This context helps to create a feeling of real distance between you and the actual event.
However, reading this sad posting about the Challenger tragedy in 1986 in a contemporary browser window makes you feel like it just happened.
The Internet Archive creates a very similar feeling in that the Web has generally been about breaking news, discovering new things and looking forwards but when you view history, especially net originated history, in a timeless browser window the constant context of the web distorts your appreciation.
Google Groups has a timeline page which lists various historical events as they were posted on usenet and it struck me that viewing these snapshots in the familiar Google browser page layout betrayed the actual age of the posts in a way that makes them feel as if they had just been posted yesterday. The web seems to neutralise the context or background to the event or posting in a way that doesn't happen with conventional print media.
I have a couple of special edition reprints of old newspapers, one from two days after Titanic sank and a couple more recent - I find them fascinating to read. What you get reading old newspaper stories in their original printed form is a real sense of the other things that were happening at the time, the advertising, clothes, hairstyles, TV guides etc. This context helps to create a feeling of real distance between you and the actual event.
However, reading this sad posting about the Challenger tragedy in 1986 in a contemporary browser window makes you feel like it just happened.
The Internet Archive creates a very similar feeling in that the Web has generally been about breaking news, discovering new things and looking forwards but when you view history, especially net originated history, in a timeless browser window the constant context of the web distorts your appreciation.