A snapshot from the Walkman era
Sometimes, in the middle of life, out of nowhere, random snapshots from the past pop into our minds. It could happen while walking, reading a book, or watching a view. For me, it usually happens when I’m coding or looking at a landscape. This time, while I was coding, a snapshot from more than 20 years ago came to mind. I was a kid, maybe around ten. We had a music CD at home. This was the late ’90s or early 2000s, so we used Sony Walkmans to listen to music. I really liked that CD back then, but I couldn’t remember its name or the cover clearly, just some blurry fragments. A few words stuck in my mind: “Webb” and “Ocean.” These two were clear. I immediately started searching online, hoping to find a digital version. But the deeper I looked, the more surprising the result was: absolutely nothing. It was like the internet had forgotten it. Search engines only showed recent, popular content. It felt like they had erased the past. ...