Our children's generation is currently the most photographed, but least documented.
What Will Happen To Our Children's Photos
It's ironic that the current generation of children is photograph more than any other generation in the history of the world. Yet, will most likely continue to be the least documented. By least documented I mean, in 5, 10, 20 years, what images will really remain of their childhood? As technology moves faster and faster so do the formats of 1's and 0's that our digital photos are made up of. When was the last time you booted up that old laptop from 2005, looked at files on a floppy disk (zip drive anyone?), how about old phones filled with snap shots? And out of those images, which ones are even of high quality? As for DVD's and USB's those don't last FOREVER either, all one needs to do is google "digital rot" to learn this. So, between digital rot and obsolete file types and technology, how can we protect our memories? The answer is more simple than one would think. PRINT.
Industry Warnings in the News
The Guardian recently published Google boss warns of 'forgotten century' with email and photos at risk and The St. Louis Post Dispatch has a great article Is the most photographed generation being robbed of childhood memories?
Protecting Memories For Future Generations
While printing your photos may not be the end all be all in protection, it's the best place to start. Just as external hard drives and computers are susceptible to fire, water damage, and other accidents, so are tangible prints. Employing a combination of tangible photo prints, online cloud storage, and physical hard drives covers almost all of your bases. The first of the three being the most effective and least complicated as the years go by. Prints also be duplicated and given as gifts so that they are in multiple locations for even more security. Most of all photos are just better when held or viewed on a piece of tangible paper. And remember this...
"It's Not a Picture Until It's Printed" - A very smart Grandmother