hannah | Digital forgetting.

Some months ago, I was wandering around my hometown on Google Street View, as one does. I got to a place that'd been under construction for a while, new buildings I'd never seen in person, with the roads around the area cut off as the work continued. I toggled the results to show me one of the years I did remember - and on a lark, started heading around under the previous date, the road still intact on the ghost version from over a decade ago.

I clicked around, happy to see it again.

Today I tried to pull off that trick and head back to that area. No luck, no cigar, no dice: the street view cut off where the contemporary construction work was going on. It gave me a message that it wasn't available in that spot anymore. I tried toggling around, but it always put me back to the same year when I hit a certain segment of road, and wouldn't let me keep going even with the road still intact in that year.

The usual issue reporting feature doesn't have a category for this, and I'm more puzzled than upset. Uncertain of how to ask about this in a very careful question, also. Wistful, too, now that the area is gone twice over.

I guess I'm going to have to find another virtual spot to hang out in when I want to revisit a certain type of hometown vibe.