Emma Bailey, who blogs at My Pretty Mummy, asks ?Is this the end of the photo album??

When I was a child, we had a bookshelf in our living room, and on the bottom shelf was a row of photo albums. Every so often, my mum would pull one out, blow off the dust, and we would peer over all the grainy, out of focus, old family photos from when we were little. Each page revealed slightly discoloured but precious memories. Each printed photo had been timestakingly placed in its slot, with a little note scribbled next to it. Isle of Wight / 1992 / First family holiday not in a caravan?or something along those lines.

Flash forward 20 years and the age of the photo album has gone. We live in a digital world, and capturing memories has never been easier. In an age where every piece of technology comes with a camera attached, we are using social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and even blogs as our personal modern day family photo albums. And it?s great!

Memories can be captured in an instant, as they happen, and shared with everyone at the click of a button (or swipe of an iPhone). My Facebook photo albums store my entire family?s life, from the day my youngest started to walk, to her first day at nursery, to meeting her baby brother for the first time. My Instagram feed is full of those fleeting, too-quick-for-a-proper-camera pictures, easily edited so instead of looking grainy and blurred, they are arty and cool. More importantly, my house is not full of a hundred photo albums filled with pictures gathering dust and ageing in the corners.

Where my pictures are now

The platform I use most to store my most precious family moments is my blog. I started it when I was pregnant with my first child and have captured every single important step in our families lives since. It?s become my personal and most important online photo album. Those tiny scribbles you used to see in your parents albums have transformed into longer, more honest posts which encapsulate exactly what I was feeling at the time the photos were taken.

We of course have some printed photos in our home: a few favourites from our wedding day, a couple of our favourite pictures of our children hung in the living room. But I will always love posting my photos online the most, because I can share them. I can share them with family, friends and anyone else I choose. Although my blog and Instagram are public, they don?t have to be. Sharing photos of your children with others is a choice, and a different debate. But the fact that my children?s grandparents can instantly see a photo of my daughter dressed up in her school uniform on her first day of school is priceless to me.

So goodbye grainy, dusty old photo albums. You will not be missed!

Emma is a mum to Alice, 3, and Thomas, 1. She is a blogger and vlogger and writes at My Pretty Mummy.

What do you think about the transition from printed photos to digital ones? Do you miss old-style photo albums?or do you still use them? Share your thoughts!

relief