This document discusses the importance of preserving our personal digital histories and archives. It notes that we are creating the equivalent of over 500 miles of bookshelves worth of digital content every 10 minutes. However, if this content is not properly archived and saved, our personal histories and existence may disappear. The document advocates going through photos and documents monthly, selecting a few to print on high quality paper and caption to help preserve important memories and our personal stories.

1. HOW DO WE
SAVE OUR
DIGITAL
LIVES?
BY MARY SNAUFFER
@MARYSNAUFFER

2. LISTEN.

3. THIS IS WHERE I HAD
MY FIRST KISS.

4. THIS IS WHERE MY
FATHER DIED.

5. THIS IS WHERE MY FATHER FIRST
SAW MY MOTHER.

6. THIS IS WHERE I STOOD
WHEN I FOUGHT.

7. THIS IS WHERE I WAS WHEN I
WAS A PART OF HISTORY.

8. THIS IS
WHERE MY
GRANDPA
LIVED WHEN
HE WAS A
BOY.

11. “Facebook designers want users to
remember and experience good interactions
with friends—so much so that serotonin, our
happiness hormone, has become a design
guideline.”
-SmartPlanet, 2012

12. “THE BROADCASTR APP IS
SHUTTING DOWN”

13. WE UNDERSTAND
HUMANITY FROM
PERSONAL
ARCHIVES

16. WE BECOME WHAT WE
BEHOLD.
WE SHAPE OUR TOOLS,
& THEREAFTER
OUR TOOLS SHAPE US.
MARSHALL MCLUHAN, 1964

17. I AM THIS PORTRAIT
PICTURE.

18. I AM THIS PORTRAIT
PICTURE.

19. IN ALL
LIKELIHOOD
YOU WOULD
NEVER SEE
YOUR FAMILY
AGAIN.
YOU GAVE
THEM YOUR
PORTRAIT
PHOTOGRAPH.

20. “THE ONLY CAMERA THAT
ANYBODY CAN USE”

21. THE CHRISTMAS PHOTOS

22. SUMMER VACATION PHOTO
THE SUMMER VACATION PHOTOS

23. GRADUATION/BDAY PHOTO
THE LIFE EVENTS
PHOTOS

24. WE ARE ANCHORED
BY OUR
ANCESTORS.

25. “SHE HOLDS A PICTURE OF HER
MOTHER SHE FOUND IN THE
RUBBLE OF HER TORNADO-
DESTROYED HOME.” OKLAHOMA, 2013

26. “I WAS JUST SO
TOUCHED THAT
SOMEBODY
FOUND IT.
IT WAS KIND OF
LIKE GETTING A
LITTLE PIECE OF
OUR FAMILY
BACK.”

27. A page from my
“teenage
archives.”

28. Me, in 8th grade.

30. TURKEY SANDWICH, THE SNOW, fancy dinner shots, ETC.
ETC.
Include turkey photo from my original presentation
Point it too illustrate sheer mass

31. If you don’t save it
you won’t exist.

32. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS
838 MILES OF BOOKSHELVES
TODAY, WE CREATE AN EQUIVALENT
AMOUNT OF CONTENT DIGITALLY EVERY
10 MINUTES

33. RIGHT NOW, WE HAVE OVER 500
MILLION* RECORDED PERSONAL
HISTORIES
*OVER 500 MILLION PEOPLE USE
FACEBOOK

37. “Hi Barack, you made us proud!
America, you have renewed my trust in
humanity! I am South African and I
marvel at the fact that my child will grow
up in a world where the greatest nation
has been led by a black person and see
that as normal! Thank you America, and
thank you Obama for living your dream
and not suppressing it!”
Posted at 4:06pm, December 12, 2008
I Am Voting For Change, Facebook Group

39. SALMAN RUSHDIE

40. IMAGINE HAVING A RECORD
YOU REALLY WANT TO
LISTEN TO…

41. THE MEDIA
ARCHAEOLOGY LAB

43. INSIDE HERE ARE THE PIECES
OF YOUR PERSONAL HISTORY

44. “… the impulse to preserve
something to be remembered
while leaving out something to be
forgotten—is found in individual
and collective minds, historically
and fictionally.”
Jacques Derrida, 1964 “The Concept of the
Archive”

46. 1. EVERY MONTH GO THROUGH YOUR
PHOTOS & DOCUMENTS
1. PICK JUST A FEW
1. PRINT THEM ON HIGH QUALITY PAPER, NOT
CHEAPLY
1. CAPTION YOUR PHOTOS WITH A SOFT
PENCIL