WEB Wednesday - May 15th

Well.. I was searching for something interesting to post for this am, and came across this....

Archivers

I think that this is sad..... how about you?

I'm a person who loves to touch and feel the product I'm working with. This causes me to wonder if there will be any product left to buy in the near future. Digital is great in many ways - but I hope it doesn't take over completely!

That's true, Jessica. I'm not a big fan of digital (too big of a learning curve) BUT I do know that "scrapbooking" was going on long before there was "product" so to speak. KWIM? I don't think that they can completely eradicate paper and glue!

JMO...

So true, Kelly! When I first started there was very little to buy from in this area. I was digging through craft supplies at Steadmans and looking at alpha stickers at Staples! I managed... but I really do love the variety I can get now, something for every theme!

I agree. Sad. I am 100% a hands on, paper loving scrapbooker. Although digital stuff looks nice i don't see any archival benefit to it. With the way technology changes stuff we are working on now digitally may be lost in the shuffle of change if you only have digital copies. Just think about VCR's as an example or cassette tapes and cd's? How many people have a VCR in their houses these days vs a DVD or blueray player. Does anyone actually listen to music on cassette anymore? With Digital I'd be afraid that some day down the road my grandkids wouldn't be able to view and look at the beautiful layouts I had created. With the quality of paper and albums at least I know anyone can open a book and my photos will be preserved along with all the stories they have to offer. I'm still looking at photo albums my grand parents had,and back then they didn't even have acid free and buffered ways to store them. They may not be in the best condition, but I can still look at them.

That is a very good point, Pam! And it's not a long period of time between upgrades! I remember using records, 8 tracks and cassette tapes. Now we have CDs and memory card/hard drive. I'm not even 40 yet!

We are just now getting rid of our VHS (although I like them better than DVD - they last longer) because our last VCR broke and I'm not going to bother getting another. Unfortunately I have home videos on VHS, which I'll keep... but if I don't get them moved onto something else they may never get viewed again.

I agree with both of you. I like the variety that is available now, but know it "could" be done. It just wouldn't be as colorful or fun!

Pam, I'm the old granny who is still listening to music on cassette and own a VCR and only just entered the laptop generation.

Note, this woman has no flat screen television even! I do, but it's a little one.
There are some of us still out there, but the numbers are dwindling to be sure.

One thing that was mentioned in the article that I found interesting is that the scrapbook world is not attracting young people to it. I know that some of you here are younger. Are you an anomoly? Just curious..

After8 wrote:

We are just now getting rid of our VHS (although I like them better than DVD - they last longer) because our last VCR broke and I'm not going to bother getting another. Unfortunately I have home videos on VHS, which I'll keep... but if I don't get them moved onto something else they may never get viewed again.

AND getting them moved isn't cheap! Jenny had a bunch of negatives in her cache of photos. I had her get them developed and (are you sitting down?) for approx 25 photos (4x6) and two 5x7 (scanned photos), it cost her $70!! Seriously?? ... yeah, seriously.. so many places don't even have the technology to print from negatives anymore... sigh...

It seemed to interest teens and pre-teens when it first got big here around 10 years ago. I taught a group in 4-H for a few years, at the local Christian camp for a few years and saw the schools holding noon hour classes and playing around with it in art. Once the girls left for college/university though the scrapbooks were shelved. Life got too busy? No space to designate as a scrap spot? Social life grew to more hours?

Now there is no 4-H scrapbooking project, the camp has dropped scrapbooking and even craft week, and haven't heard of anything at the schools. Even the lady who owned the LSS had to give up classes at the new civic center because no one was going.

Kelly wrote:

After8 wrote:

We are just now getting rid of our VHS (although I like them better than DVD - they last longer) because our last VCR broke and I'm not going to bother getting another. Unfortunately I have home videos on VHS, which I'll keep... but if I don't get them moved onto something else they may never get viewed again.

AND getting them moved isn't cheap! Jenny had a bunch of negatives in her cache of photos. I had her get them developed and (are you sitting down?) for approx 25 photos (4x6) and two 5x7 (scanned photos), it cost her $70!! Seriously?? ... yeah, seriously.. so many places don't even have the technology to print from negatives anymore... sigh...

Wow!... maybe it would have been better to put them on CDs. I took 10 years worth of negatives to our Walmart and they put them on CDs for me for $100. That was about 5 years ago.

Well it was sort of a special circumstance... We have a ton of negatives that could/should go on cd's. I should check into that. Obviously, my dh isn't going to scan them all after all! LOL! He started about 3 years ago and stopped about 2 years ago... there they sit.. boxes and boxes of them - right beside his special scanner!

I don't think the problem for Archivers is the digital wave of scrapbooking, I think it's that their prices are too expensive!

Also, with digital, they can be printed out on a 12x12 & then put in an album. Now, mind you, I haven't done that with any of mine but that's the plan! LOL!

That's true, Stephanie. For myself though, it would take a great deal to have me turn to a digita format. I can see my dil who is having the baby in Sept doing it that way however. She loves to scrapbook, but doesn't have time or space to do it. She is however extremely computer literate so it would definitely be an option for her.

I agree about the expensive pces. I have never been to an Archiver store. I tend to stay away from "art stores" for my scrapbook supplies when I can!

Devin has the slide here from his father he brought them in December). They're STILL sitting in my living room! Some are done, but since he didn't keep track of what's done or not, he's not been too concerned with finishing them. Uggh!

Oh yeah.. the slides... I forgot about the slides! They are still in their cases down by the scanner...

This is sad however, I believe it will happen more often than not; especially with our economy and the American one going to pots. We live in A world where owing people and companies is acceptable however, what about owing ourselves. Sometimes simplifying things makes much more sense than overdoing and saturating the market. This also applies I this case, as I think some of you have pointed out Scrapbooking is a craft that exploded after having only a bit of stuff to work with to overwhelming the scrapbook community. How in the name of Taranation would a person feel justified in purchasing art stuff when they need to feed a family?

My rant for the day.....lol