3 Problems with the Photo Dump

We have all inflicted the “photo dump” on our social media friends and followers. And I am a sucker for the dump! I love to look at all of the photos of your trips, your holidays, your family functions — I really do! But let’s be real. The reason for the photo dump is as much about saving as it is about sharing. We continue to dump our favorite photos into Facebook or Instagram in order to make sure that they are not lost. 

Here are three problems with the photo dump as an archival method:

1) Platforms go away — and with them your photos. I dumped a lot of photos on several platforms that no longer exist. 

2) The files that we are accessing today can become more difficult to access as software evolves. This means slower files. 

3) We are burdening our families with the eventual unenjoyable task of sorting through a mountain of electronic files. Even for professionals who inherit the archives of another professional photographer, this task becomes all-consuming. 

You know which photos are meaningful to you. Print them. Print them and hang them up in your homes. Create books for your kids with images of the important milestones in life — or even the unimportant mundane moments. Let’s fill our homes with images of the people, places, and moments that are meaningful to us rather than dumping our cherished memories on social media for safekeeping.