TL;DRPeople accumulate enormous digital archives but leave future viewers with no context. Eternal Memory founders Israel Elgamil and Itamar Evgey are building a digital time capsule platform where users curate meaningful moments with photos, videos, and stories. They cite Pew Research (84% on YouTube, 71% on Facebook), Library of Congress digital preservation guidance, and ResearchGate research on format obsolescence to frame the gap between accumulation and meaningful preservation.
The Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey found that 84% of U.S. adults use YouTube, 71% use Facebook, and 50% use Instagram, illustrating how deeply everyday expression has moved onto digital platforms.
The Library of Congress explains that digital materials can be harder to preserve than physical materials because access depends on changing technologies, formats, and devices. Its personal archiving guidance recommends selecting what matters, organizing it, and maintaining copies over time. Digital preservation could therefore involve decisions about meaning as well as storage.
The fragmentation is also visible in how people communicate. Pew’s 2025 research also found that Americans use a range of platforms with significant differences across age groups. A person’s photographs, conversations, videos and milestones can often exist across several services, accounts and devices, each designed around a particular form of communication.
