By Guest Blogger
Share, share, share! In today’s digital age, we tend to have a one-track mind when it comes to our photos. In 2014 alone, almost 1 trillion photos will be taken. That’s unbelievable! However, these photos are often “gone in 60 seconds” – shot, uploaded and shared within a minute via email, texts or to one of dozens of social media websites. At that moment, our memory is whisked away with the thousands of other digital photos we rarely think about. This fact is even more ironic because most of us understand the challenges of learning our own family genealogy: unsolved questions about our ancestors’ lives, mysteries we can’t solve and often very little . . .
Share, share, share! In today’s digital age, we tend to have a one-track mind when it comes to our photos. In 2014 alone, almost 1 trillion photos will be taken. That’s unbelievable! However, these photos are often “gone in 60 seconds” – shot, uploaded and shared within a minute via email, texts or to one of dozens of social media websites. At that moment, our memory is whisked away with the thousands of other digital photos we rarely think about. This fact is even more ironic because most of us understand the challenges of learning our own family genealogy: unsolved questions about our ancestors’ lives, mysteries we can’t solve and often very little . . .
information to use. And yet, here we are doing the same thing to our own personal legacies by not organizing or storing our digital lives to preserve and pass down to future generations.
According to a recent survey by Trunx, our photos really are scattered everywhere — and those precious memories aren’t stored safely either. The research shows 78% of our photos are housed on computers, 62% on our smartphones, and 22% on social media sites. Furthermore, only 10 percent of adults have created a printed photo album in the last year, making digital photos the new photo album for most. The old school photo album has evolved and made way for a new reality that our treasured memories are now primarily housed digitally.
What makes storing photos digitally a scary proposition? The fact they are at risk of being lost forever. Why? Phones and computers are vulnerable to software and hardware damages– not to mention being stolen or misplaced. In the same survey by Trunx, almost 9 in 10 adults have lost photos from their cell phones, computers and social media sites. That points to a real pressing issue the majority of us face: how can we keep our precious memories safe forever to pass down to future generations?
The good news is that there are ways to ensure that our digital legacies are safe and accessible for our own posterity as well as future generations. We recommend three foolproof ways:
According to a recent survey by Trunx, our photos really are scattered everywhere — and those precious memories aren’t stored safely either. The research shows 78% of our photos are housed on computers, 62% on our smartphones, and 22% on social media sites. Furthermore, only 10 percent of adults have created a printed photo album in the last year, making digital photos the new photo album for most. The old school photo album has evolved and made way for a new reality that our treasured memories are now primarily housed digitally.
What makes storing photos digitally a scary proposition? The fact they are at risk of being lost forever. Why? Phones and computers are vulnerable to software and hardware damages– not to mention being stolen or misplaced. In the same survey by Trunx, almost 9 in 10 adults have lost photos from their cell phones, computers and social media sites. That points to a real pressing issue the majority of us face: how can we keep our precious memories safe forever to pass down to future generations?
The good news is that there are ways to ensure that our digital legacies are safe and accessible for our own posterity as well as future generations. We recommend three foolproof ways:
Trunx: This all-in-one camera and photo organizer does all the work for you. Simply download the app and start to upload photos from your mobile phone/device, computer, and social media sites including Facebook and Instagram into one safe, secure place in the cloud. All of your photos are automatically organized and locked down by password protection — but can be accessed at any time. Take your memories back while freeing up room on your mobile device, and share only if you wish.
Mosaic: Sometimes we still want a photo album for special occasions such as weddings, bridal showers and birthdays to have around the house and show family and friends. But the question remains: how do you pull photos from your phone and social media sites to make a traditional album? Enter Mosaic – which lets you make a photo album from your iPhone or iPad pulling pictures from Phone, Facebook, and Instagram. It takes just minutes to create and a week to ship and costs only $20.
Hard drive: Here’s the reality: If you are really good about coming home every day and plugging your smartphone into your laptop, uploading and saving your photos onto a hard drive isn’t a bad option. The downside is that if you want to free up precious room on your phone or device, you will need to delete the photos from your phone – meaning you can’t access them readily. If you’re like me and have over 2500 photos on your iPhone, this can be an issue. However, backing up your photos is always a very good idea.
So tell us – how do you organize, store and share your photos? Do you have one place they are housed? And are you thinking about your photos being passed down for future generations?
So tell us – how do you organize, store and share your photos? Do you have one place they are housed? And are you thinking about your photos being passed down for future generations?