#serverfarms

Of course, we all know that in order to send an email, we need a computer (or any other web-enabled device). We type the text, input the recipient’s address, press a button, and seconds later the other end receives our message. A very simple process. In fact, it’s so simple even my 93-year-old grandpa manages to send me the ‘thumbs up’ icon via Facebook (along with many other randomly elected icons he presses accidentally during the process). 

I must admit, I had never given much thought to what actually happens with my message after I press the ‘send’ button. The question has crept up on me a few times: Does it dissolve into tiny particles that float in the air and then get put back together? How do the particles know in which order they need to accumulate again? Where do they end up if they get lost? And how do they know where to go? Kind of like the question ‘Did I exist before I was born?’ I quickly dismissed those thoughts because they seemed like unsolvable riddles out of this world and beyond my comprehension.

Image: A Google Data Centre. Available at theguardian.com

Luckily, in order to tackle those questions, one does not need to go into metaphysics. The answer is, indeed, (at least partially) quite physical. Even though it was nothing new to me when I read it again recently, I tend to forget that all the information we send back and forth needs to be stored somewhere. And this ‘somewhere’ are giant data centres housing huge server farms consisting of servers containing our information. That means the information we send and receive in form of simple messages requires electricity, physical space and security personnel (Yes! People are guarding your smoochy-emojis!).

What had definitely not crossed my mind before, but what was brought to my attention in an article by The Guardian about Pointless Emails, is that every message we send leaves a carbon footprint, and consequently every unnecessary message we do not send is good for the environment.