Over the past decade, we have all become immersed in digital images. We have instant gratification with a nice little LCD on the back of our cameras or cell phones. Everyday we see pictures of people that they've posted to Facebook. Before that, it was MySpace. Before that maybe some of you cutting edge internet gurus were into Friendster or some other site that never made the big time. But now, it's Facebook.. and we are all so lucky to have all of our friend's images at our finger tips. 

What ever happened to the good ole days of printing pictures and creating photo albums? Does anyone still do that? What will the kid's who were born in the 2K's look back on when they are 20 - 30 years old? What will this generation do? Are we going to be stuck with our online photo albums, and nothing tangible that you can hold or pass down? 

In my opinion, here are the pros of printing pictures or Posting Digital Pictures... and the Cons of each.

Pros of Printing

• You have something tangible
• You will have a photo album, or box of pictures that you can stumble onto one day, and reminisce. 
• You will have something to pass down through generations, like every generation before us has, since the advent of photography.
• Real pictures will hang on your walls, and not be stuck inside of your computer

Pros of Posting Digital

• It costs nothing
• You have instant access from anywhere in the world
• You can share images with people for free
• Instant gratification and a clear mind, that you have the picture you thought you were taking
• You will never lose your images

Cons of Printing

• Cost
• Space

Cons of Posting and not printing

• You have no tangible image
• You have nothing to stumble upon, and enjoy randomly
• You will have no image to pass down through generations
• Reliant on the internet for your pictures, or a website that could lose them in a freak accident
• Not posting, and only having them on your computer, then getting a cpu virus.

In closing, I guess I just kinda worry about people's habits changing. I worry that this generation that is being raised now, isn't going to have those old pictures to look through. I feel like the wholesome family album is steadily becoming the Digital Family Album, with much less meaning. I personally cherish my pictures, and print out nearly everything. Even if it's going in a drawer somewhere, I don't want to my family to miss out on the treasures and family time that can be had while looking through family pictures together. 

How do you feel?