The Perils Of Online Storage But Why We Can’t Live Without It
Last week, I had to upgrade my iCloud storage from 200GB to 2TB which trebled the cost and made me think about my future online. Apple repeatedly told me that my images had not been backed up and would not be saved which made me anxious. What will the future look like? Will each of us have to have a storage unit to house (possibly) thousands of pen drives containing our memories? Will the cost of subscriptions to online storage services be automatically deducted from our salaries in the way that many of us pay income tax now? What will happen if the “cloud” bursts? Will this lead to the biggest data breach in the history of the Internet? And what about if there is a second millennium bug-style scare and with systems (theoretically) spiralling out of control with all our data in their pockets?
Why are we so obsessed with posting our memories online?
As I go about my daily life, I’m regularly taking photos. They can range from selfies to snaps of that amazing restaurant I just ate at. I have also started to make short videos about my life in Japan. I am often walking along a cute street with those pretty red lanterns swaying in the wind and I find myself reaching for my phone. I’m a month into a new life in Japan and there are so many moments like this that my media is increasing on a daily basis. I have nearly 1000 videos on my iCloud, many of which I intend to edit and turn into something YouTube-worthy (you can find me at ‘Japanishmark’) and over 17,000 photos, many of which need a good filter and adding to social media.
Yesterday I went to the Tokyo Aloha festival, a colourful celebration of Hawaiian culture in Japan. From the back of a large crowd, I could see a group of hula dancers performing, their floral prints darting from one side of the stage to the other but I couldn’t make out any more details than that. The man in front of me recorded the whole 5 minute performance despite being a good 40 meters away from the stage. As I watched the footage over his shoulder, I thought what a waste of time it was. The video wasn’t impressive and there wasn’t anything remarkable about the situation but still he stood with his arm up holding his phone for the entire performance. I would be surprised if it was watched again but would probably sit in his cloud or his phone’s memory for years to come. Sure, I understand that it might have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him and he just wants to savour every moment, but this could have been achieved by simply watching and taking it all in. He was so preoccupied with lighting and making sure nobody blocked his view that he forgot to enjoy the experience. As soon as the performance was over, he clicked POST.
I have come to think that this is the way of the modern world. Posting on the Internet is like talking to an imaginary audience who always want to know where you are and what you are doing. How many times do we post something and then obsessively check how many likes or views we’ve received afterwards? It’s our audience’s way of letting us know that they’re listening. For that moment, you’re like the cool kid at school who comes in on Monday morning with the new trainers that everyone wants. It feels good to be popular and know that there’s someone interested in YOU.
Who’s our audience?
“I see you’re having sushi again” was one of the messages that I got recently from my mum. I hadn’t told her that I was having sushi for lunch but I had posted a photo on Facebook of a mountain of raw fish. Like most mothers, I know she worries about me when I’m living abroad and I like that she has a way to keep up with what I’m doing and see all my posts. However, I recently posted that I had been woken up by a small earth tremor and she immediately started to worry and sent me some frantic messages to see if I was ok.
Aside from my mum, a lot of my colleagues like to see what I’m doing in Japan and I like getting messages saying “keep the photos coming”. I think most of the people who know me wouldn’t say I was a serial post-er or someone who posted about absolutely everything. I try to find interesting stuff to post about and generally think if I like it then some of the people I know will too.
I have a couple of people on Instagram who have thousands of followers. A photo of a flexed bicep can generate thousands of likes and I wonder what they get out of it. Surely it’s not possible that they know that many people. I think at that level it becomes more about quantity and less about the quality of your follower’s responses.
What will the future hold?
When I think back to my childhood, there are so few photos of me because it wasn’t the done thing to take so many photos and the technology wasn’t so readily available. So many children today will have every moment of their lives recorded and posted online that a diverse and chronological timeline will be formed by the time they reach sixteen. I’ll leave you to decide whether that’s a good thing or not. I do have one friend who has said that she won’t post any photos of her son online until he’s old enough to consent to it at eighteen.
We can now back up to the cloud and access it on multiple devices from wherever we are which gives us a fantastic amount of freedom. However, we need to pay for these services and as people generate more images and memories online, the cost of this storage is bound to increase. Tech companies hold this data and have access to our lives in a frightening way.
There is something comforting about having physical images in your hand and I am pleased to say that I do have a selection of photo albums with loads of images that aren’t on social media. It feels in some way that these are more private and I have more control over who views them.
It’s clear that our need for storage will swell in the future and probably begin to eat into many people’s lives. Whether it’s somewhere to store cherished images of family, holiday snaps or those videos that you feel you should keep but aren’t sure why, you’ll need online storage. I will leave you with this comment: to the person who comes up with a future model for deducting online storage payments from our salaries, I thought of the idea first!
