
Ask HN: How do you document your life and preserve memories in the internet age? - owlsaway
Prior to advancements in digital technology, documenting your life involved developing photos, scrapbooking, holding onto keepsakes&#x2F;souvenirs from specific times&#x2F;events, or just abstaining entirely to focus more on the experience itself. Nowadays, though, the tools used to do this have shifted more towards social media platforms.<p>With recent controversies around the power held by tech companies, I&#x27;ve been thinking more about this shift. By posting pictures and by making posts about my experiences to preserve them and share them with my friends, I feel like I&#x27;m giving up ownership of those memories to whoever is hosting that platform, be it Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc.<p>I&#x27;m not sure whether that&#x27;s a big enough deal to decide to stop posting entirely. I&#x27;m also not sure of any alternatives that may exist. Every time I get an urge to share something fun or exciting that has happened in my life, I second guess myself, because I haven&#x27;t figured out where I stand on the privacy vs. convenience discussion.<p>What are your thoughts?
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edpichler
Man, I am on weeks thinking on the same problem you wrote here.

I am tired of uploading my content on sites like Facebook, or Google. Short
story: once I uploaded a personal video on Youtube, and they removed forever
because there was a ACDC music on the environment. It was precious, and I lost
it forever (forgot to do backup).

I am thinking on buying a domain to me, and create a blog to share albums just
with people I want, create a newsletter for some topics, and keep my memories
and all my data on my servers (and my backups, online and offline).

Social networks would be used just to promote some link or content I want to
share.

I sow some interesting things on
[https://indieweb.org/](https://indieweb.org/)

~~~
psyc
YouTube deleted my entire channel because _one_ video had music in the
background. No reinstatement, it's just gone. Then they deleted _another_ of
my channels, and that whole Google account, and gave no reason - and I can't
think of any.

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kleer001
Poorly. I used to use Flickr, then I tried to curate my own subjects and
periodically print out books. But in the end I just take pictures, video, and
audio, and dump it in my computer hoping one day my future self will sort it
out.

I wish it were dealt with more auto-magically (and interchangeably) on the Os
level.

But in the end I don't really care too much. Life is for living and communing
with loved ones, not documenting. Still, I post frequently, careless of who
"owns" it. I kinda fail to see how it can have value, all those pictures, even
in aggregate. It just seems like noise.

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tudelo
I don't. I never really take pictures and find it annoying when others decide
that they need a picture during any (extremely slightly) noteworthy moment. Of
course, some evens should be captured but thankfully everyone in the world
thinks they should take a picture during those times so there really is no
reason for me to.

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p0d
I use an offline WordPress server to blog about my thoughts and experiences.
Offline meaning the server is only available on my home network.

I have often thought I would like a tool that would convert my WordPress
content into a book. The book would be for my wife and children when I move
on.

There is definitely a freedom in blogging for yourself and your immediate
family. I just need to resolve the issue of a less technical format of my
musings for my family.

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Ana_TestRise
I remember what my friend's sister shared with me a few months ago. She put
all her adventure and travel into a blog so that the time when she becomes a
grandma, she could just share the blog with her grandchildren to tell them her
life stories.

This is what I think also about documenting my life.

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ApolloRising
Strangely enough a friend of mine uses scrapbooking. It is very old school and
manual but she gets a lot of enjoyment out of it. It is something she wants to
leave her children when she is gone.

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sp527
Once you stop caring what people think about you, the only thing you need is
an iCloud backup subscription.

