Pictures, videos, and audiotapes are some of the most valuable, irreplaceable things in your home. They’re your history. They’re recordings of memories, people, emotions, and countless other things that you’ve experienced over the years. Your memories are, kind of, you. Pictures and tapes are great resources to have, and there’s nothing quite like going through old polaroids occasionally when you’re feeling nostalgic. But even if you’ve organized your stuff like a champ, and even if you have everything safely stowed away in the most protected regions of your home, there are still plenty of reasons to get your media library digitized. Here are the 5 most important reasons we think you should
make sure all of your media is digitized – sooner rather than later.
1. SAFETY
Something nobody wants to think about is that tragedy can strike a home at almost any time without warning. Whether it’s fires, tornadoes, rodents, or pets who decided your Super 8 collection was a great chew toy, having only 1 copy of your media leaves you open to losing it.
Creating a digital backup of your photos, videos, and audio will help ensure that, should the unthinkable happen, you’ll still have your memories available and intact.
2. SHAREABILITY
What good is a polaroid in the times of Instagram and Facebook? Sure, you could pop a
couple of pictures into an envelope and send them away, but having them digitized and sending them via email or social media is much faster and cleaner. Plus, you don’t have to give away your only copies to do it. Best of all, think of all the likes you could get if you started sending out consistent Throwback Thursday posts!
3. PEACE OF MIND
Wouldn’t you sleep better tonight knowing that your stuff won’t disappear overnight? If a burglar comes and raids your closets, you’ll still be able to
access pictures of your kids’ birthdays and achievements because it’s all backed up on a convenient thumb drive in your nightstand.
Peace of mind is a powerful and invaluable thing.
4. AGING
One of the overlooked aspects of physical media like
photographs, videos tapes, and cassettes is that
they won’t last forever. They can all fade, rip, tear, and break over time. Plus, obsolescence is making it tough to predict whether you’ll even be able to playback some of that stuff in 10 years or not. How long has it been since you’ve even seen an 8-track player? Bringing your memories into the 21st century will ensure that you can actually enjoy the media that you’ve recorded over the years.
5. CONVENIENCE
Think about the process you would have to go through to
watch an old VHS tape. If you don’t have a VCR hooked up, it would be a complete pain to pull everything out of the closet and watch. You’d have to fumble with wires, hook everything up to the TV, rewind the tapes, and make sure the sound is working before you can even start to enjoy them. Wouldn’t it be much easier to hop on the computer, double click a couple of times, and instantly access your entire
library of pictures,
videos, and
audio recordings? Digitizing removes all of the storage and hook up hassle and puts all of your greatest memories right at your fingertips at all times.
