The Value of a Photograph?

Family photographs were once something to be put into family albums, to be shared with friends and relatives, and to be pulled out at embarrassing times once your children are grown up and dating. (You know exactly what I’m talking about – the naked ones on the change mat!!!). But these days were are less likely to print out our photographs, and are growing more and more wary of sharing them online. Do we now value our family photographs less than we did in the past?

We can share our photographs so much easier these days, Instagram is hugely popular, as is Snapchat, and Facebook still has the capacity for us to create album after album. Yet, In order to take a closer look at how we now value photographs and to find out how much we worry about their reach in the online world, www.cartridgesave.co.uk asked 1040 people aged over 18: “Are you happy sharing photos of your children online?”

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A post shared by Emma Iannarilli (@fashionmommywm) on Feb 21, 2017 at 9:56am PST

I share some family photographs on my Instagram feed.

The results were surprising. Despite living in times when oversharing seems to be the norm, and life doesn’t seem to be happening unless it has an online footprint, the results found that 83% of parents who responded to the survey were wary of sharing photos of their children online, while just 17% were fine with it.  There are worries about photographs being stolen and used for insavoury purposes. Even photo storing and secure accounts have been hacked, with high profile stars like Jennifer Lawrence falling victim. It’s no wonder that although we seem to want to share, we are wary and uneasy about possible consequences. (You can read more about the survey here.)

Speaking about the study, Ian Cowley, Managing Director of Cartridge Save said:

“Our lives are now lived online; it’s a culture to take tens, if not hundreds of photos a day and share them with friends, family and strangers – what we’re doing, what we’re eating, where we are. It seems that photographs, now that they are no longer limited by cost, are rarely printed and kept safe so have lost their value and become worthless to us – they can always be deleted and replaced with another, better, selfie or snap of your meal.”

He continued with a warning:

“Despite assurances of online safety, once photographs are shared online, their reach is no longer in your hands. Even if they are deleted from a social site shortly after being uploaded, or even if you upload them to an account that it set to be private, the photos will already be backed up in servers around the world that may be vulnerable to hacking.”

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A post shared by Emma Iannarilli (@fashionmommywm) on Feb 9, 2017 at 12:58am PST

Despite all this, I still can’t see us going back to a time of photo albums. I love flicking through old photographs, but have you actually tried to buy a nice album recently? They are getting harder and harder to find, and more and more expensive. The answer may be that we have albums on our laptops, smart phones and ipads that we keep all to ourselves, only sharing impersonal snaps on our online outlets.

What do you think?

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