Anthropology in the future

Urban Barn's Colourful Coffee-table Buddha. http://media.metronews.topscms.com/images/ef/0b/6e0eda7b453495458e0c863bf84a.jpeg

One thing that has been occupying my mind lately is what are archaeologists going to look at in the future?

So much of our culture today is contained within the Internet, on CDs, USB sticks, and other pieces of technology. So much of the things that take president in our lives rely on electricity to be functional and useful, so what will happen when the time comes that our sources of technology are forgotten or unusable. For example, VHS cassettes are increasingly hard to play, even now, because they have been replaced by DVDs and BluRay disks. But, if you are not able to play these disks or tapes what would they be interpreted as? Hypothetically, when our technologies are all out of date a thousand years in the future what will be deemed important?

http://www.worldtvpc.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/internet-tv-killing-dvd.jpg

I also question, will they care? Has our civilization documented every aspect of our culture so thoroughly that, in the future, there will be no curiosity about the 21st century? There are some people who have kept a record of their thoughts on the Internet in the form of bloggs or web-pages for years, will these be taken into account to judge our society? Will our technology ensure that we are remembered in years to come, or will it make it easier for us to be forgotten?

When thinking of the affect we have on the archaeological record it is also interesting to think about what items they might focus on in future studies of the 21st c. There will be so much left behind in land fills and settlements that I wonder if they will even care. Some of the adds on the internet I don't even know what the items are for so how would it be interpreted later on. And so much of what we own today is so trivial, in western societies we often itemize everything, I remember seeing decorative neon statues of Buddha at Urban Barn and thinking "that is compleetly out of context!"

Oreo Scoops? Honestly... Imagen finding these without knowing what an Oreo is. Completely confusing!http://d1535dk28ea235.cloudfront.net/preset_65/oreo_scooper.png

I realize this post is not the most cognitive but its just a little bit of what I have been thinking lately... why will future generations want to learn about our culture and will the multitude of crap we leave behind daunt them in any way?