Caro Cooper's Digital Archaeology: Excavating 20 Years of Email

Caro Cooper recounts her experience of sorting through a 20-plus-year-old email account, which she describes as a digital cigar box of memories. The process revealed distorted recollections, long-forgotten friendships, and evidence of her past self, including emails from her deceased father, job applications, and a front-page appearance in the Herald Sun for binge drinking. She discovered that she maintains loving friendships with exes, as evidenced by affectionate post-break-up exchanges. The email account also contained spam from a hack that inadvertently kept a group of friends connected. Cooper reflects on how the email mega-corporation held a more complete picture of her than she had of herself. The article is part of a collaboration with UNiDAYS, offering students a discount on frankie magazine subscriptions.