Comment by molbioguy

My grandparents and parents either experienced or personally knew people who lost everything at some point, through war, social strife, or economics, and personal tragedies. Same on my spouse's side. Physical photos and letters were among the few things that often survived, possibly because they are only of value to the original 'owner'. I think that close brush with the impermanence of belongings fueled the habits of preparing for loss by archiving and preserving physical mementos. People trust that digital artifacts will survive through redundancy, but we're so early in the process of testing that belief. And society has been rather stable in comparison to my grandparents' generation ...