I’ve been making memories all my life. Videos of my first steps, the family holiday in Israel, my role as Gratiano in the school play. Then came my graduation, our wedding, that incredible boozy fortnight in Magaluf. And on and on. They told us the memories would live forever, digital ghosts on distant servers that our descendants could watch.
Over and over, I parse the e-mail from the Home Office. “Storage maximum has been reached globally. All citizens are required to delete 50% of their data.”
What to amputate?
.
Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here
Neil MacDonald Author 
Sounds about right. Tech companies are always changing the rules.
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But what is all the servers in all the world fill up?
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corporate punishment, so very well described. Compliments of the season to you Neil
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Thanks, Michael. Perhaps not so much corporate punishment as the reaching of the limits of global storage capacity
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Truly tough.
Making memories so painstakingly and then having to amputate.
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Thanks, Anita
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Big Brother’s watching, Neil.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks, Rochelle
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Your protagonist alone curates what really matters so let’s hope the true images, the ones in his mind, abide for as long as he needs them. May they continue to provide him with myriad catch-of-the-breath moments, triggered by sensations, scents and songs. Big Brother, although he is probably just doing his best quite reasonably, can’t take that way from him.
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Thanks so much, Jilly, If pnly we all knew that
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We rely too much on that odd idea of “data”. We also have that odd idea that we need to save everything. Interesting story.
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Or, indeed, that instead of experiencing things, we should “make memories”. Thanks so much, Trent
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When The Cloud is full, shouldn’t it start to rain? 🙂
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Sometimes to thunder
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Shall we ever run out of digital space? Without the hardware, the answer is yes. In a previous job, the man at the top decided that all our information was to be stored digitally and all existing paper records were to be digitised. I felt a sense of loss- to me there is something solid abut a bulging file full of paper. I expect I am just an old fashioned sort.
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And those in the future may similarly mourn the bulging files of pictures of their kittens doing wacky things
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What an intriguing story. They, at least, have a choice what to keep and what to lose. When we get old, things vanish from memory without asking first.
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I believe that’s known colloquially as wisdom
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Upgrade to a paid plan 🙂
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This may not help if all the servers are full
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😀😀
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A communication from the Home Office. I’m immediately suspicious…Still, deleting my old emails should go some way towards hitting the target. Nice story, Neil.
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Thanks so much, Penny
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Amputate. Wow. Serious choice of word.
Hey but when you are limited to 100, your words have to be serious.
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Thanks so much , Dawn
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Hopefully, there will be enough Recycle Bins!
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No recycling. Just gone
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My e-mail keeps reminding me to buy more cloud data.
Loved it.
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Thanks so much
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Why we should hold tight to memories. Sad the day when the retrieval system fails. Indeed, “what to leave in//what to take out.” 🙂
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Or maybe to let some of them go?
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Oh, most certainly.
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when all’s said and done, we can only keep what we’re allowed to remember.
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Or remember what we’re allowed to keep?
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That day could come, like running out of cemetery space. Good metaphor for Alzheimers also.
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Thanks so much, Jade
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You’re very welcome.
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Thank you Neil for this reminder. Unfortunately, our brain is not a computer, so memories do what they will: forgotten, remembered….but undeletable. Wishing all the best for the coming year.
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Thanks, Susan
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I learned long ago not to trust the cloud when a story I was working on got deleted twice. Once is a mistake. Twice, there’s an issue.
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Wise man
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Perhaps its time we all focus of living in the moment, instead of saving them! Love what you did with this prompt!
Happy New Year!
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Thank you for this and for understanding the message of the piece
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50%? 👀 That’s a tough one! I must admit, I keep every photo and video, probably some I don’t even need. SMH.
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And that’s not even the stuff your fridge remembers
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Oooooooooo
Now this has a kick at the end. What a fabulous piece Neil. Makes you think, what could you delete? And I
In a world where everything is digitised. There’s horror here in your piece too.
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Thanks so much, Laurie.. Horror, maybe. Or is the horror that we are too busy making memories to experience anything?
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Oh wow…I really like that twist, and what a question it leaves us with!
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Thanks so much, Patricia
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