The current Vice President of Google, Vint Cerf, recently spoke to a gathering of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and warned that a “digital dark age” may be ahead. All digital files on our computers will eventually be lost. This poses a real threat to preserving our history in both text and images.
One of the key reasons for this concern is the rapid speed of technology. Computers and gadgets that we thought were advanced 10 years ago now seem ancient. The software and files associated with that technology may not be usable or retrievable.
For those that may be storing all of their photos on disks and in the cloud, the potential loss could be devastating. Experts suggest that one way to preserve our images is to print them – make a quality print on archival paper. This is something that most professional photographers continue to offer to clients and suggest as the best way to create heirloom memories in print.
