“Effimeri ma non troppo”. La conservazione dei messaggi istantanei: è ora di cominciare ad occuparcene?

Over the past ten to twelve years, instant messaging systems have become increasingly popular: WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, WeChat, SnapChat – just to name the most popular apps – but also the instant messaging systems built into Facebook, LinkedIn, or Microsoft Teams are used by anyone and on any occasion, whether formal or informal. This extremely fast and immediate means of interaction increasingly tends to replace those traditionally used so far – such as e-mail, which is considered a more “official” but also less “immediate” means of communication. Consequently, it is necessary to begin to question whether these instant messages can be considered as records and as such should be “captured” in document management systems and somehow preserved for posterity. This paper aims to offer a reflection on these issues and the debate currently underway in the scholarly and professional community of records managers and archivists.