Social Networking Sites to Blame for Demise of Traditional Photo Albums

Posted: 06 Jul 2013 11:35 AM PDT

Remember when a family gathering was anchored by a good, long photo album review session? Everyone would gather on the couch and the young people would roll their eyes while the grandparents waxed on and on about the ‘good old days’, with the photographic evidence of just how fantastic these memories truly were. Once a year your parents would break out their wedding album, or embarrass you in front of a date with some baby pictures or worst of all, that awkward summer camp photo album with you in a pair of short shorts. Well, it appears that in today’s world of high technology, these photo album sessions may be obsolete. According to a recent poll, social networking sites may be causing the demise of traditional photo albums.

South Korea’s Samsung is the principal company behind the study, with an assist by the OnePoll corporation. Together, they analyzed data collected from more than 3,000 participants in the United Kingdom. The results were staggering, especially when you focus on the habits of those between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. In short, 66% of those polled would much rather collect their photographs on a tablet, computer or smartphone than in a fancy, plastic-protected photo album. Only 33% still use albums, while more than 50% use Facebook as their primary photography collection.

If you dig a little deeper into the numbers, it appears that young adults are abandoning photo albums at a massive rate. And their families are helping to enable this change. Only 13% of those that reported back on the poll have ever even used a traditional photo album. That means these album review sessions have been falling by the wayside for several years now. Since film stock has been dying a slow death for years now the connection to a physical print is no longer what it once was.

A further look at the data shows how the pull of interaction is drawing more and more people into Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Twenty percent of responders declare that when they take a picture the goal is to get it up on the social networks. And ten percent of those polled stated that a picture they take was placed on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook within one minute of being taken. It’s clear that most people now use their smartphone or tablet as their main camera, and all of these devices are connected to the internet through speedy Wi-Fi service. Facebook has publicly stated that their service uploads more than 300 million photographs each and every day. How can a traditional photo album ever hope to compete?

The type of photos that people are taking is also changing in this social media age. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘selfie’? These are the pictures that people snap of themselves, holding their camera at arm’s length. They’ve become increasingly popular, regardless of how annoying many folks find them. In fact, selfies now make up 30% of the photographs taken by young adults. Men are the primary culprits as well. There’s no room for selfies in fancy, tailor made photo books. But why not post a quick snap online, with the ease of simply pushing a button? People continue to take pictures. In fact, more photos are being snapped today than ever before. But those photos are living on social media, and sharing will never be the same.