The Internet is not forever

Today's Internet seems infinite. According to a Washington Post report, it's a universe of more than 1 trillion unique pages. It expands by 200 million tweets every day. Some 24 hours of YouTube video is added to it every minute. And yet, the average life of an Internet page is about 100 days. The Internet went online sometime 1990. The Post reports that nearly all of the early content is gone because no one thought to preserve it. Generally speaking, only the most important or popular stuff endures because of copying or sharing. (Happily, that includes The Onion's immortal "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" 9/11 edition, published some two weeks after the event. We badly needed a laugh then, and The Onion delivered.) Today, archiving efforts are being made for history's sake. But since 99 percent of Internet content is junk (think pet cat pics), we're probably better off letting most of it die on the vine naturally.