As the title suggests, I'm very adamant about the importance of printing Facebook photos. This post will give you a window into why I'm so passionate about this topic.
Your photos and your Friends' photos are stored on Facebook and are easily accessible, so why should you print them?
1. You are very unlikely to look at old photos in the future- New content is constantly being uploaded to Facebook. Check your News Feed, then check it again two minutes later. There will be at least one if not several new pieces of shared content. As of early 2010, an average of 3 billion photos are uploaded each month to Facebook. Let's face it, with the number of photos your friends are uploading, you probably aren't going to go back and look at old photos. Many of those old photos are of you with friends and family at holidays, concerts, birthdays, and other events that you don't want to forget. Creating a photo book or buying prints to frame is a great way to make sure you always remember them.
2. You don't have to go through the hassle of asking a friend for a copy- Asking a friend to email you the photos you want to print or send you a copy of the prints is time consuming and a hassle for both you and them. What if they keep forgetting to send them and it never happens? It's much faster and easier to print them yourself.
3. The value of a print appreciates over time- Name something in your house that appreciates over time. Chances are it probably holds sentimental value. Photos and canvases are the same way. Ten years from now what would you take for a photo of you and a friend at his or her wedding? What about in 25 years? Would you rather leave a priceless photo sitting on Facebook to be forgotten and lost over time, or create a print, canvas, or book to cherish forever?
4. Photos are deleted and users deactivate their accounts- People reorganize their Facebook accounts when they are applying for a job, applying to school, or want to make their profiles more professional. This often involves deleting old photo albums. Some photo albums contain tons of photos from many different events such as an album called "Spring 2011". It is much easier for a person to delete an entire album when cleaning up their profile than to go through and delete certain photos. After all, they have a digital copy of the photo and if they want to print it they can. You can't. Not only do people delete photos from their profile, some deactivate their accounts entirely. The chance that you will be able to print those photos is slim to none.
5. There's a HUGE difference between seeing a photo on your computer screen and seeing a professional quality print of the photo- You may think you are preserving the memories of a recent trip or special occasion by posting photos on Facebook or keeping the digital files on your computer. While this is true, no digital image comes close to a high quality print. Seeing the photo as a print brings the memory to life, especially if it's printed on metallic photo paper.
Of course it's not your intention to forget about photos and memories by never printing them, but unfortunately that's what usually happens.
Don't let it happen to you.
