I came across an interesting article this week about Facebook’s photo application and the server infrastructure that supports it.  The numbers are staggering even when put in perspective that there are currently over 200 million active users:

• Facebook users have uploaded more than 15 billion photos to date, making it the biggest photo-sharing site on the web.
• For each uploaded photo, Facebook generates and stores four images of different sizes, which translates into a total of 60 billion images and 1.5 petabytes of storage.
• Facebook adds 220 million new photos per week or roughly to 25 terabytes of additional storage.
• At the peak there are 550,000 images served per second.  (courtesy Gigaom)

With these kind of numbers, it becomes clear that technology will probably never hinder the amount of media that can be stored and served effectively.  The real question becomes – Do we really need so much media?

In the old days (ten years ago), photographs were something that held more personal value.  Many people remember taking time to plan a shot and say “1 2 3 cheese!” to coax the best picture out of that frame of film and then going to store to get the real film developed.  If it’s a bad picture now days you push the button on the digital camera one more time and just decide not to post the bad ones on Facebook.  Delete the picture?  Why?  You have storage space for hundreds more and they are now just memories for the vast digital archives.  I’m not saying technology hasn’t made photography quality better, or more convenient, however the value of photographs and memories become more diluted as this technology progresses.

A discussion I had with uncle about the progression of media revealed similarities between our generations and media consumption.  We both understand what it feels like and have a shared respect for holding a piece of media in our hands whether it be a DVD or a printed photograph.  Yes it is easier for me to select from a vast library of movies to stream through my internet via Netflix than to go rent or buy a DVD.  However there is still a nostalgic feeling and appreciation for a movie when you take the time to drive to a video store and search until to find the one that you will take home for movie night.  From Redbox to Netflix, increased accessibility and distribution are going to drive prices down for consuming movies as well as drive down the intrinsic value of the movie.  Your local Blockbuster is going out of business and learning hard lessons taken from the disintegrating music industry driven by record labels and physical media distribution.

Bottom Line:  Traditional physical media doesn’t need to be something of nostalgia.  A blend of physical and digital media can coexist as long as we use discretion in our production and consumption of media.   Creating quality media will be the driving force for maintaining genuine value and keeping traditional methods of consuming media alive.