How Smartphone Cameras Changed the Way We Document Our Lives - Carrying a smartphone allows us to photograph all parts of our lives, not just the happy, beautiful ones

Search the Instagram hashtag #2009to2019 or #10yearchallenge and you’ll notice bangs are out and flannel is in. But there are two basic changes related to technology that are easy to miss. The first is unsurprising: Image quality has gotten much better. The second showcases how our photo taking style has changed. While most people’s 2009 photos are obviously taken by someone else—full-body shots from a distance, often containing little bits of forearm or cheek that reveal friends or family cropped out—most people’s current photos are mirror selfies where their smartphone is visible, or a flattering front-facing camera snap. Just as video killed the radio star, the smartphone has largely replaced the stand-alone camera.

As our device of choice has changed, so has the way we take photos. Having a camera always in your pocket has allowed us to take photos of pretty much anything—the number of photos we’ve collectively taken doubled between 2013 and 2017, from 6 billion to 1.2 trillion.

Yes as I look back at my digital; photos dating to 2000 I can see how the quality, size and volumes of photos taken has increased year-on-year. The good thing is we record so much more of our lives versus 1975 when photos were mainly just of select people (we had 24 frames, had to pay to develop them, wait a week, and then find some did not even come out). Now we just shoot away and take 10 or 20 photos of the same thing. But the joke may still be on us...although we have so many more memories, where will these be in 100 years time? Chances are my old printed photos in the family album will still be around