Ok, guys and dolls. I see. You go through a lot of trouble and time to preserve the things dear or valuable to you and those you perceive as valuable. Looks like I don't value things
(
Which is so not true! I love beautiful things! I just don't like stuff.)
I don't take photographs as I try to be aware enough of my surroundings to remember them. I also find whereever I travel a professional photographer already took pictures of the sights far better than I ever could.
Although I have some on my computer, I see no need to keep music "in the house" because I can stream it. Same applies to movies. So if I'd loose them, I really wouldn't care.
Books are on the reader. I have to admit it would be a hassle to get them back again, but I wouldn't have to re-download all the books I ever bought back, only those I haven't read yet.
Documents... I guess I don't have many. Even if I would loose them, they most probably would be some kind of contract and that would also be in the possession of the one I made it with. Letters/emails likewise. Same applies to the oral history someone mentioned, this is what my dentist has in their files, why should I store a duplicate? Calender, telephone numbers and adresses are in my memory.
The thing is, I gave away all my physical books every time they became too many for my limited apartment space. I once lost all my vinyl records, which seemed to be a devastating loss at the time. Turned out it wasn't, as the CDs were just taking over and they were new and exciting at the time, so I bought a lot of it again and some new ones too. And I learned over time, I don't need to have it in my possesion. I didn't miss the books I gave away and I didn't miss my records or later the CDs when I got rid of those. We can access all these things all the time now that there is internet.
I try not to hoard/collect anything as I already have far too many possesions without collecting stuff on purpose on top of it. You'd be surprised by how little of our stuff we really need. Its like with the clothes in your closet, only a fraction of what is in there gets worn, the rest is "just-in-case" stuff.
So, what this boils down to for me is: I understand those of you who create something or other (write/photograph/compose etc) wanting to preserve their output.
As for the tablet suggestions made to me, well, I always do have a tablet around to surf with, but only use it for reading websites. I really prefer a bigger screen to watch a movie every now and then because I don't have a tv and a keyboard to type on, so I got both. And of course my Calibre collection has to "live" somewhere ;-)
Funny how different we all are, isn't it?