We're about to enter the Digital Dark Ages

Google announced that as of next year , all of the existing shortened URLs are getting turned off.

This kind of thing keeps happening, and it's getting worse.

The internet has become the default archive of our history and culture.

For the first time since people started carving letters into rocks, we're making a time with no history.

As we store our lives on our devices, we're actively choosing to punch huge gaps in our historical record.

What an archive is able to save, down to what formats fit in its file cabinets or data banks, literally determines what gets remembered.

What gets remembered about the past determines what we're able to do in the present.

"But in the case of corporate ownership, the likelihood of responsible long-term stewardship of digital content in any form becomes increasingly unlikely." The Dark Ages, as historians used to call the early centuries of medieval Europe , lasted for 500 years . Our digital version may never end. A postliterate society leaves exactly as much of a mark on the world as a preliterate one. Which is to say, not much of a mark at all. Adam Rogers is a senior correspondent at Business Insider . If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider on Microsoft Start ..