Study Results: The effect of digital photo organizing on American Families
400 parents completed a survey about the state of their digital photo collections
Our team at EverPresent has spent years digitizing and organizing collections of older photo albums, slides, VHS tapes and home videos. As firm believers in the importance of creating digital copies of family memories, we were surprised when our clients kept telling us they were actually more stressed about their recent photos. This seemed counter-intuitive, as newer photos are already digital and safe, but we heard the same story and over and over and each person seemed to think they were the only ones struggling.
Eventually, the husband and wife team that founded EverPresent had a family of their own and started saying the exact same thing: “We have too many digital photos and videos and not enough time to manage them.” They commissioned this study to better understand the pain points associated with mushrooming collections of digital photos and videos among parents and the findings are remarkable. You can find the results of this survey in their entirety below.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. How many photos and videos are parents taking?
2. How are parents managing the fragmentation and clutter?
3. Are parents backing up family photos?
4. Where do parents stand with photo management?
5. What are consequences when parents fall behind
6. Photo software: confidence and usage
7. Comparison of photo organizing to other household tasks
8. Time management: How long does it take?
9. How does it affect marital dynamics?
10. Are parents enjoying their family photos and videos?
11. Our conclusion
Have accumulated over 15,000 photos and videos
Have accumulated over 50,000
Have more than 1,000 digital videos
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Have not consolidated their photos & videos into a single library
Of parents say they don’t sufficiently delete unwanted photos
Say they’d delete a significant portion of their collection if they had time
Say they would delete over 50% of their library if they had time
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Of families use some sort of cloud backup
Have no confidence all of their photos are on the cloud
Are CERTAIN that not all of their photos are on the cloud
1 in 2 families back up to external hard drives
Are worried about losing photos and videos
Are EXTREMELY worried about losing their memories
The average family is adding over 3,600 photos and videos per year, and estimates 45 hours of manual work are needed to catch up on organizing backlog.
Where do parents stand with photo management?
| Task | Caught Up | Behind | Way Behind | Not a Priority |
| Downloading | 20% | 44% | 27% | 09% |
| Backing Up | 23% | 36% | 34% | 07% |
| De-Cluttering | 12% | 37% | 44% | 07% |
| Organizing | 16% | 36% | 39% | 09% |
| Sharing with Family | 33% | 38% | 19% | 09% |
| Making Books | 09% | 24% | 47% | 20% |
| Editing Videos | 12% | 25% | 37% | 27% |
Missed capturing an important moment because a device was full
Have lost a photo they thought was backed up and safe
Were unable to find and share a photo or video that was requested by friends or family
Experienced computer slowness due to oversized photo libraries
Of families have not switched out a photo in a picture frame in the last five years
Have neither printed photo book nor photo calendar in five years
Photo Software: Confidence and Usage
We asked parents to tell us if they are confident in their abilities using various aspects of photo software. The individual results are below. The average rate of confidence was 60%.
| Upgrade your photo software to the latest version | 38% |
| Clear up space on your computer for new photos | 54% |
| Clear up space on your phone for new photos | 70% |
| Export a photo from your organizing software and have it printed | 53% |
| Crop a photo | 79% |
| Purchase an external hard drive and move your photos to the hard drive | 50% |
| Send a video clip to a friend | 64% |
| Send a digital photo to a friend | 80% |
| Share an entire album of photos with a friend | 48% |
We asked parents to tell us if they were regularly using various aspects of photo software. The individual results are below. The average rate of usage was 31%.
| Using facial recognition to tag photos | 30% |
| Using tagging features to categorize photos based on different topics or events | 43% |
| Starring photos to easily highlight your favorites | 24% |
| Assigning color dots to photos | 09% |
| Creating books or collages | 42% |
| Creating slideshows | 33% |
| Sharing photos using the software | 40% |
| Searching photos by keyword | 23% |
Comparison of photo organizing to other household tasks
Of parents report that managing photos and videos is the single most frustrating
household chore
Of parents have tried and failed to organize their digital library in the past
Of parents have tried and failed three or more times
| Ranking | Activity | Convenience oriented apps |
| 1st | Taking photos and videos |  |
| 2nd | Shopping for groceries |  |
| 3rd | Shopping for clothes or household items |  |
| 4th | Managing and tracking your finances |  |
| 5th | Sharing photos and videos |  |
| 6th | Planning family vacations |  |
| 7th | Managing and tracking health & fitness |  |
| 8th | Managing household technology |  |
| 9th | Organizing photos and videos |  |
| 10th | Making gifts with your photos and videos |  |
Families give themselves the worst grades managing photos and videos vs. other household responsibilities. Family photos and videos, along with physical fitness, are the outliers:
| Household Responsibility | Percentage Self-Grading C, D or F |
| Managing my family’s photos and videos | 47% |
| Managing family finances | 28% |
| Managing my family’s fitness | 44% |
| Planning my family’s vacations | 28% |
| Managing household issues | 21% |
| Managing my children’s health and wellness | 13% |
| Mangaging my children’s education | 13% |
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Are not confident they could manage the situation even if they had all the needed time available
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per month to keep up going forward
Of couples report NOT sharing responsibility for managing family photos and videos
Of couples report NOT sharing responsibility for producing photo/video gifts
Report a marital issue stemming from photo and video management
| Reported Impact on Relationship | Percentage Applicable |
| When this topic comes up, we fight | 04% |
| My spouse is generally letting us down on this topic | 11% |
| I suspect my spouse is not doing a great job with this, but I’m hesitant to say anything | 12% |
| My spouse probably thinks we’re in way better shape than we are on this topic, but I’m hesitant to say anything or ask for help | 26% |
Making photo gifts, which is supposed to be the fun part, is disappointing parents.
I don’t make gifts as much as I want to because it takes too much time
I don’t make gifts as much as I want to because I haven’t been able to properly learn the software
I take on more than I can handle and often have to settle for a photo gift way less cool than I wanted
At the end of the day, the majority of parents are not having fun with their photos and videos. Only 41% reported having fun with their spouse on this topic. Making photo gifts, which is supposed to be the fun part, is disappointing parents.
| What description best describes how you feel about managing the family photos & videos? | Percentage Applicable |
| I genuinely enjoy it | 36% |
| I feel like I should enjoy it, but in reality it’s frustrating | 31% |
| It’s probably not worth the effort I’m putting in | 08% |
| I mostly dread this responsibility | 12% |
| At the moment I’m just in a really bad place on this topic | 05% |
Our Conclusion
“Parents who think they’re alone in failing to keep up with photos and videos are not alone at all. American parents are struggling with their photos. This study is a reality check and an acknowledgment that the flood of new photos and videos, combined with years of backlog and collateral damage from changing and fragmented technology, is overwhelming the majority of parents. Most photo collections are so disjointed by now that families are too paralyzed to take advantage of recent advances in photo software. As a result, parents too often aren’t enjoying a process that should be fun and rewarding: documenting life together as a family.”
– EverPresent Co-Founders Eric & Jennifer Niloff
What are resources for families?
For those who want everything taken care of for them:
EverPresent Digital Organizing Services: Our professional photo organizers will consolidate, de-duplicate and organize family collections into chronological folders, creating an organized and useable digital library.
For those who want to be involved and/or learn how to become a photo organizer:
The Association of Personal Photo Organizers offers training for anyone interested in becoming an independent, certified photo organizer.
For those who want to do it themselves:
Photo Organizing Apps.