Why Printed Photos are Still Important in the Digital Age

For better or for worse, we’ve all taken our phones, tablets, laptops, and smartwatches to be our faithful companions as we move through life.

There’d be no point in listing all of the many, many (many) different benefits there are to living in the digital age. Sure, the sheer potential technology offers means that we all have the potential to move mountains, constantly tucked into our back pockets, but it also means that we can order food to be delivered to our houses at the exact moment we make it back from work, play board games (board games we once called boring) with strangers sitting halfway across the planet, and take fifty near-identical photos of a cat we saw when we were walking to the post-box.

In other words, while we’re all walking around with some incredible CPU power in our hands, but most of us are content to avail ourselves of the everyday, relatively mundane plus sides to living in the digital age.

Nevertheless, there are some things that even the biggest tech-heads are realizing deserve to stay in the real world. Whether it’s your neighbour’s Maine Coon or your recent trip to Paris, our photographs take on an entirely different meaning off-screen, and offline.

There is intention behind a printed photo

In the past, at-home photographers would spend weeks (or even months) filling up a roll before dropping it off to be developed, picture by picture, and returned as a small collection of memories. They had to put thought into each photo, or they would waste a shot.

These days, it’s a completely different story. We have near-unlimited opportunities to gather memories, and to keep them forever without them getting damaged, faded, or lost.

But there is something nice about the intention photos used to require, and that’s a big reason why polaroid cameras made the comeback they did. Obviously, we’re not going to suggest you disregard your smartphone camera entirely and focus on the old methods, but even getting your photos printed or collected within a photo memory book brings back that intention, and that same sort of emotional investment we can make into our snapshots.

Even choosing to create a Google photo book online means sorting through the digital pile, regaining creative control over your pictures, and recapturing that sense of anticipation as it makes its way to your front door.

It sorts the best from the rest

How many of the last hundred photos on your smartphone’s camera roll are true gems? How many of them would you notice if they went missing?

Chances are, you have a good number of beautiful photos – but, at the same time, there are probably an awful lot of duds, accidental pocket snaps, near-duplicates, and faces caught hallway between a smile and a frown.

Since you’ve got so much space on your phone, or up in the cloud, there’s no value to deleting them, but it’s also great to put some attention into choosing the best pictures – the ones that bring you real joy – and making the very most of them.

This is similar to what we do on social media, only printing them just for you means you don’t need to be self-conscious about the way your face looks, or whether the composition is ‘artsy’ enough.

You could start by choosing to print a photo book from your Instagram, then move onto the archives until you have an entire bookshelf dedicated to your memories.

It’s history

We’re a lot more accustomed to taking photos than any generation that came before us. Reaching for our smartphones everytime the sunset looks particularly beautiful, or there’s a funny looking tomato at the supermarket, is practically habit these days, and it’s easy to overlook how important the memories we’re making really are.

Most of us still look at the photos our parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents took. There’s something special about turning the pages of an album, and seeing the story flow from picture to picture.

A beautiful photo book has precisely the same effect. It tells a chapter of your story, and presents those picture-perfect moments to you, and to anyone else who opens it, in a way our phones and computer screens aren’t ready to match. Even if you print your photos direct from your Facebook, having those prints to keep, share, and pass down through the generations means you are part of a very old, and very important, tradition.