Photographic time and tide.

Off work and waiting for the demons of man flu to leave me, I was moved to reminiscing about the past and decided to do some stalking searching on line.

I was pleasantly surprised to come across an image posted on Facebook from one of seven schools I attended as a child.
The image submitted today was taken circa 1974 of a group of people whom I don't remember looking so young. I don't recognise myself in the class photo (possibly poor recognition, possibly told to go empty the class bin so's not to spoil the photograph), it may have even been taken the year before I joined the class. Perhaps it was the difference a year made, to age them as I knew them.
The lonely excitement of finding and printing the image and pointing with caressing finger to once familiar faces and repeatedly mouthing their names. The tactile but futile attempt to touch them again, mixed with the "herbs and spices" of happiness, embarrassment, regret and curiosity amongst others, seasoning the memories that came flowing back.

The point is, and I have broached this before, what will the Instagram / Facebook kids of today experience when they suddenly realise that time, tide and possibly Facebook have fled from them? Will the latent gigabytes of imagery still be accessible to them to recoup their memories of "their" time?
Old resin coated photos have their frailties but are robust enough to last more than the decades of memories we hope to have.