The great debate: Print vs Digital
Who doesn't love a good debate? This subject has been top of mind lately, as I try to minimize screentime and find other ways to entertain Cade. Today he pulled a magnet off the fridge with a picture of his friends "Yum and Zane"(Yum aka Liam). He carried them all through the house as I tried to correct him and say L-L-L-I-A-M. Cade loves seeing the pictures of his friends and family and unfortunately, that is the closest he will get to them for a while.
I was looking through pictures from this past Christmas when we went to my Mamaw and Papaws lake house to celebrate with my extended family. Upstairs is covered in pictures of our ancestors and downstairs is all about the grandchildren. We had tables setup downstairs to make room for everyone, and while we were eating I glanced over at a picture of myself as a baby that looked JUST like Cade. I never really thought of us looking alike, mostly when I look at him I see a combination of my husband and my mom. I, of course, took a picture of him with my portrait and post to social media. Then I thought about how thankful I was that my Mamaw had all these pictures of us. Will our grandchildren come to our house and see pictures of themselves as baby’s, awkward middle schoolers or their old prom picture? I’m sure we just got the digitals and after uploading to social media that was the last time we saw that photograph.
I read this article recently which made me really sad for future generations.
‘An estimated 631 million photographs each year, around a third of the total taken, will remain forever on accounts to which we’ve forgotten the passwords, or on obsolete hard drives, making them inaccessible to us and future generations.’ (you can click here to read the article)
Seeing all the photos on the wall at my Mamaw and Papaws house made me feel loved, at home and cherished. What does it say to our children who see us mostly hiding behind a phone taking those 631 million photos and never taking the time to put them in an album or on the wall for them to enjoy and relive? I love the nostalgia of flipping through photo albums and hope to pass that on to my son. But what are the chances of Cade logging into my google photo account or finding my external hard drive and clicking into each poorly named folder to see pictures of his parents and himself as a baby?
So here is the question, is digital better than print? Which will be cherished by future generations? After all, that is why we take those 631 million photos right?
I have been guilty of taking those millions of photos and doing NOTHING with them! The occasional post on social media only represents a tiny fraction of the cuteness that is stored on my phone! I am going to take advantage of this season we are in, to slow down and put together this album Cade will cherish for years to come! An album full of the family who love him so much and wish they could hold him, memories of fun things we have done with our friends, and of course Cade's go-to pose and the reason we nicknamed him Burt.
If you need me, I will be filling an old school photo album with the pictures from Cade’s first 17 months of life!
Please consider this next time you tell your photographer, "I just want the digitals!" And know this...the photographer that is encouraging you to print photos is just trying to help you enjoy your investment in quality moments and fill your walls with smiles and laughs.
Not so SHAMELESS plug- If you are looking around your walls and wishing you had quality family portraits I would love to reserve a spot in my fall family schedule for YOU! :) All you need is $35 for the deposit and to fill out the contact form!