Data loss

Yesterday, my girlfriend was scrolling through her whatsapp as she does. When seemingly out of nowhere disaster struck and her chat history was flushed right out of her phone. There she was, feeling like a large part of her history had been undone and she felt very emotional afterwards. There was a backup, but it was a year old. The google drive storage was completely filled. So no chance there.

I can recall I felt the same way some years ago, when I lost my chat history AND accidentally restored to a years old backup. The restore put me in a sort of time-warp, where I was transported years back in time. It felt like I was breaking into my own history. Accessing a timeline gone by, not meant to be watched or edited. And altering the timeline and history by picking up these old chats and continuing the conversation I had with people. It was a very odd experience and humbling in a way.

I can imagine that this digital grieve will become a lot more common in the future.