Over the weekend, ignoring the panic of my impending academic obligations, I rewatched Zombieland, the greatest dystopian movie of all time. Whilst admiring that cinematic masterpiece, I was reminded of a discussion that my US history class had: how obscure are we to the future? If the Earth is overcome by a brain-eating virus how does the history of humanity survive? What carries our lessons into the future? Papers or tweets?

On March 15 of 1755, George Washington wrote a letter to a Robert Orme, and because of this letter (among many others) we know today that the great General-turned-first-President had ambitions to “attain some knowledge of the Military Professions”. On June 22 of 2017 President Donald Trump tweeted that he’d “We will BUILD THE WALL!”, and because of that tweet, we know today he wants to build a wall. Both communicated their message in significantly different methods, relevant to the era they live(d) in.

“I do everything online. All of my school work is on my laptop, and all my contacts are on my phone, obviously. I’d fail life if I lost my laptop, not gonna lie,” said an anonymous sophomore. And while it seems entirely impossible for the entire internet to crash, in 2007 Asia experienced a series of earthquakes that damaged undersea cables that caused wide internet and phone-related issues in that part of the world (Computer Hope). While the rest of the world was fine, many highly educated people believe the San Andreas Fault in California and the Japan Trench are biding their time, waiting to cause a similar disturbance on the digital world. Additionally, humanity has yet to experience a magnitude 10.0 earthquake, so who’s to say what the consequences are? Of course, let’s not forget that a zombie apocalypse would mean that there’d be no one to operate internet services, and thus all tween girls’ poems about love and eternity would be lost.

However, an apocalypse isn’t necessary for our thoughts to be lost. In an era where practically everyone shares their feelings in one way or another on the internet, how can every single thought be measured equally?

Does each thought deserve to be measured equally, or do some hold more weight than others? Does the oversaturation of content and opinions devalue what could’ve been considered a sensational epiphany two hundred years ago? Possibly. This article was written on a Google document and was published electronically and accessed through computers, phones, and tablets. And it’s among likely thousands of similar articles or essays or academic papers. In five hundred years, what’s remembered of our generation? Is it articles like these, or academic papers, or a middle-aged man’s facebook rants that are remembered as the identity of our generation?

Or what if, by some disaster, zombie or not, all of our digital records are lost?

Works Cited

“Is It Possible to Crash or Shut down the Entire Internet?” ​Computer Hope​, 21 May 2018,

www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000085.htm.