Photos are the memory keepers of our personal story. They are reminders of love, laughter, good times, vacations, family, friends, and traditions. They help us reflect and remember a life well lived.
Today we are at risk of losing our visual inheritance to natural disasters, technological obsolescence, and digital overload. The ability to take and share thousands of photos in an instance has lulled us into thinking that these pictures will always be available to us, but too often, that isn’t the case.
No Wonder You Are Overwhelmed
The statistics are staggering.
In 2015 people took 1 trillion digital photos and that number is expected to grow to 1.2 trillion by the end of 2017. There are currently an estimated 3.6 trillion photos stored on computers, and devices and those numbers are expected to grow to 4.7 trillion by 2017. It’s also estimated that there are over 1.7 trillion paper photos stored in albums, attics & shoeboxes, waiting to be digitized and backed up.
In 2017 we will have 4.7 trillion #digital #photos stored on our computers & devices. #saveyourphotos Click To TweetWhat about your old home movies? Video tapes, like VHS, were very popular, and some 6 billion tapes were sold in the US with an average length of 2 hours each. That’s 12 billion hours of footage of new babies, first steps, weddings, barbecues, and graduations. But videotapes were never meant to be a permanent medium, and deterioration strikes them in as little as 20 years, even when stored under optimal conditions. Less than 1% of these memories have been transferred to digital, a much more durable and lossless format. Also the ability to view these 6 billion tapes in not an option any longer since most devices have become obsolete.
Is it any wonder people are overwhelmed with their memory collections?
How To Save Your Photos
Take a deep breath; we’re here to help. Continue to follow this blog and we are going to share tips on how to organize your backlog of printed photos, digital photos, media, and memorabilia. Our goal is to help you choose the pictures, stories, and memories that matter the most and safeguard them for generations to come. And most of all, we want to help you get them back into your life now so that you can enjoy them today!
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We also invite you to visit our sister blog The Photo Organizers for more tips and in-depth knowledge from some of the top photo organizing industry professionals. To find a photo organizer near you, visit the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.