Rutgers emphasizes importance of traditional formats in evolving era
Rutgers students rely on phones, laptops and other forms of technology every day to store vital information for classes.
But today’s media users may lose access to digital files in the future, said Vint Cerf, vice president of Google in an interview with The Guardian.
The programs used to run these files will be a thing of the past, Cerf said. This “bit rot," or the disintegration of storage media, will lead to a forgotten century and digitally uploaded information will disappear.
Cerf's opinions directly challenge the advent of fledgling technologies popping up in Silicon Valley, where people are nonchalantly throwing all of their data into what could become an information black hole without even realizing it, he said.
A new phone case, Prynt, allows photos from a smartphone to be printed straight to the device. It is available for pre-order before March 2, according to the product's website.
“If there are photos you really care about, print them out,” Cerf said.
Another new technological investment on online fundraising website Kickstarter is the microSSD. This small storage card plugs into a Macbook’s USB compartment and adds up to 384 gigabytes of additional storage space. People pledge money to the project and receive different rewards that consist of storage cards.
These storage cards only add to the information that will be lost in the “forgotten generation," Cerf said.
Cerf commends those trying to create new technology in order to preserve out-of-date files.
The University has a central record center which stores over 150,000 cubic feet of records, said Stephen Dalina, assistant director in Business and Administrative Services with University Records Management.
“At Rutgers, we need to comply with certain legal requirements in maintaining and retaining certain types of records,” Dalina said. “There are laws such as HIPAA, GLB and state requirements to how records are stored and destroyed.”
He said that it is more secure and affordable to have a paper record stored on a shelf instead of converting the information to a digital record, but sometimes records will be scanned to an electronic format based on certain criteria and conditions.
“Back up your vital information, update your password often and keep your devices as secure as possible," Dalina said.
He believes that with hardware and software updates constantly changing, it is safer to store information – especially important information – in a tangible format.
Students at Rutgers appreciate digital technology, but they also value the utility of traditional note-taking and studying.
William Tilton, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student who spends an average of 10 hours a day on all of his devices, writes his notes for class by hand.
He said it helps him remember the information better when he physically writes notes himself. Tilton also stores photos on his phone and uploads them to his laptop when there are too many.
“(My computer breaking) happened to me before," he said. "I didn't lose anything too important, but I did lose saved pictures that I had to deal with not having anymore. I can’t imagine losing all of my school documents.”
Tilton’s devices back up and save automatically, but he said phone and computer companies continue to charge for extra storage. As a result, he went a few months without backing up any memory.
“I feel like we will outlive how long it will take for digital devices to go away,” Tilton said. “It’s never really occurred to me because I rely on it so much.”
Alexa Venito, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student who owns an iPhone 6 and Macbook Pro and spends at least eight to 12 hours combined on her device, types some of her notes in one lecture hall because the class size is so large, she said.
“My laptop and phone (information) is set to backup every day to the ‘iCloud’ through Apple," she said.
She writes the rest of her notes in other classes by hand, but thinks new applications like Prynt are what keeps the world technologically advanced.
“I think it is so important to back things up on paper," she said.
