\”When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.\” – Alex Haley

I read this quote a long time ago and for some reason I randomly recalled it. It made me truly realize the significance this quote holds and what we can do to preserve knowledge.

Preservation of Information

Living in this era, information is widely accessible due to the great invention of the internet. I find myself scrolling through a dozen articles a day, googling the most random questions and watching a diverse number of videos. The internet does a very good job at storing information, there is a quote that goes like \”Whatever goes on the internet, stays on the internet.\”

Information is valuable, it has to be preserved well for it to last forever. We have all heard about historical stories of burning libraries such as:

  • The Library of Alexandria in Egypt
  • The House of Wisdom in Iraq

If the internet existed before the libraries were burnt, we would possibly have a great amount of information preserved. Old people are burning libraries.

Significance of Information

People claim that everything is found on the internet, I believe not. There are plenty of things that may have not been documented whether it be a story or some factual information. Everything falls under information, whether it be someone\’s story from the apartheid, someone\’s historical heritage, someone\’s discovery of new information. The documentation of information holds great importance since everyone is going to pass one day regardless of colour, nationality or status. Death is the only thing that is guaranteed. Why not document a story or information that will most likely stay forever where generations of people might find useful?

What should we do?

After all my rambling, you would definitely want a solution. We should take out our cameras more often, we should document more often and we should share more often. I had zero social media presence for a big chunk of my life due to thinking it has no use. Social media is a very powerful tool, but it should be used wisely. I am going to summarize everything into one sentence:

Document and share what you learn.

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