When studying our present day, will future historians use internet pages as primary sources (assuming it survives)? Or will the internet be viewed as unreliable, or too full of nonsense?

by homedoggieo

As opposed to past eras where primary sources are hard to come by, will the internet be seen as "too much of a good thing"? Or will future historians turn to hard copies, because of their permanence?

AlviseFalier

Depends on the source and the kind of research being done. Sometimes, a sex joke scratched into a wall by a Roman legionary is more useful than any text written by a biased Patrician. The same way, future historians might be equally interested in PerezHilton.com and the New York Times website (which has a historic archive stretching back to the 19th century is already often used as a primary source). It depends on what you're researching. Further, not all primary sources are magically good. In my own area of interest, there is an eleventh-century bishop of Cremona that gives an extensive contemporary account of the Papacy. However, historically Cremona always was an Imperial-Leaning city, so any use of said source must be taken with a grain of salt.