Internet Immortalized

I’m sure by now the phrase “the internet is forever” is one that everyone has heard. Be it someone in middle school making their first-ever social media account, a high schooler being prepped before applying for college, etc.

But the fact of the matter is yes, the internet immortalizes every thought, picture, and opinion that finds its home on the interwebs. And, in some cases, it can come back to bite you in the butt.

Take what happened to Kyle Kashuv. Kyle was a survivor of the tragic events that happened at Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Contrasting many of his fellow survivors, instead of lobbying for gun control Kyle became a prominent gun-rights advocate. During his senior year of High School, he was accepted into Harvard’s class of 2023.

But that was all washed away and rescinded after screenshots of the texts, Skype conversations, and Google documents study guide was posted by classmates and a “former friend” of Kashuv containing his repeated uses of the N-word and phrases like “Kill all the f***ing Jews” from years before. Despite him trying to persuade a different outcome, using the fact he was much younger and that living through such a traumatic situation, Harvard held solid on their decision.

Time and time again we see instances like this happen, where people make mistakes as big as Kashuv or attempt to erase something as frivolous as trying to erase your engagement from the internet but fail because, as we are warned the internet is forever.

But how can this be? Why are silly, at times borderline stupid, posts stuck for the world to see on the internet forever — with no possibility of ever truly being rid of them?

For starters, let me introduce you to the Wayback Machine, a digital archive of the internet preserving sites from every corner of the internet for historical purposes. This means I could go on today, and see what the Washington Post’s website looked like on April 17 of 2021, 2020, 2019, and on and on. Devices like these that preserve websites ensure that the content on them never disappears and that they withstand the test of time.

It goes beyond that as well, some sites have it embedded in their terms and services, but I would be genuinely surprised if anyone reads those. While the person attempting to delete the data, as well as other users of the site, may no longer see that photos, posts, or whatever has been supposedly removed — the information is still there and stored by the host company. For example, until recently I didn’t realize for your Facebook account to be officially deleted you must request its permanent removal. Or, to take it to a scary level for any android users, Androids can legally listen in on users’ conversations and record them without them knowing.

So what is the solution, how do we beat this internet immortalization? Simple, be smart about what you post and keep in mind that while you might find what you are uploading funny now and will “worry about it later” — later will come eventually and have an impact that might not be favorable.