In an article published on Thursday, BBC News is reporting that researchers have determined that approximately 33% of digital camera users in the UK are not backing up their photographs. The results are more surprising considering that almost 90% of the people taking part in the poll owned a digital camera or camera equipped cell phone, and of those 50% took more than 10 pictures a month.
Digital photography has its obvious benefits, but the convenience of online storage should not give way to lazy storage. Traditional photographs are usually put in albums, safely stored away. In fact, it’s often said that photographs are the one thing people would stop to collect in a house fire.
So why are digital photographs so poorly maintained? Around one third of users are leaving their photos to chance, and with the risk of Internet viruses, face losing their photos forever. Around nine in ten have some sort of digital camera, whether it is an actual camera or camera phone, and generally half of those take at least ten photographs per month. This, potentially, could lead to the loss of several treasured images.
Perhaps online storage, either as a backup or alternative, is the answer. Flickr! is one such website that allows storage of photos, and can be a useful way to arrange images in albums for others to see (if desired). Either way, it is something to seriously consider if you want those photos to be around for your grandchildren.