The words you type on a keyboard are like the ones that you speak and write. Deciding to delete them can be a rather easy decision to make, but this decision affects more than just the individual who is deleting the text.

Instead, it affects the world around us, as well as those who might come across that text in years past. Luckily for everyone involved, there are several programs available online to recover deleted texts from old hard drives and disconnected devices that can help preserve these digital remnants for future generations.

Here are the impacts of self-deleting text on the digital landscape:

Individual

The self deleting text message will simply be gone, and even if a file is recovered it’s most likely not something that the person who deleted it would want to see again. Therefore, the individual may never find this information in the future. Although there might be some sentimental value to having such information, the impact on record keeping could mean the difference between a family member being listed in his or her father’s obituary or not.

Group

If the information is important to a group, such as a family or even just good friends, the group might decide to start searching for those pieces of information. However, if this information is stored on some type of digital medium, then it’s most likely gone forever.

Digital record keeping is not something that many people think about when they delete something from their computer or cell phone because it may not seem like that big of a deal at the time. However, in the future many people might look back and want to know about their past, including things that were previously deleted.

Professional

If the information is important for an individual’s professional life, then it’s most likely going to be gone for good. Again, this may not seem like a big deal at the time of deletion, but in the future it could catch an individual off guard when asked about something that he or she had deleted from a digital device along with all of its other files.