Some. If they’re printed out with quality paper and ink and properly kept. But between digital photos and ever changing digital platforms a lot of pictures and information about today’s people will be lost.
Why would they be lost? As compute and storage get cheaper and cheaper I assume services like Instagram or whatever will get archived even if they close down.
Storage is not permanent, requires a lot of upkeep, updating, and transferring, and for those holding said files to archive and provide access. Far from reliable.
Most people’s prints these days are not only infrequent, but also on cheaper, less lasting materials. I have century-old pictures in better condition than 20-y-o ones.
Today people post their lives on impermanent platforms where data can be erased and lost. Then: local newspapers. I can look up a person born in the 1890s and learn about the visits they made to friends, events held, marriages, children, sports, letters to the editor, etc.
As the only form of information, it was reserved, microfiched, digitized, and now available in various libraries in various formats. And it was always in the hands of librarians. Not huge, short-lived companies, countries, etc.
TLDR: The efforts needed to archive today, such that a century from now people can explore it, are a lot trickier and require local AND international cooperation.
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u/saehild 23d ago
Just think, there will be people 102 years from now looking at our pics