An online survey, commissioned by Blurb.com and carried out by YouGov, found that 44 per cent of respondents now share their digital photographs using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Of course the trend is particularly prominent amongst 18 to 24 year olds, where 83 per cent share their images on social media websites, while only 19 per cent of people aged over 55 do the same.

The survey also found that there is a growing trend for people to use creative online services to transform photos into real, personalised products, to keep, share, and give as gifts. Almost half of those surveyed stated that they would prefer to make a hard copy photography book from their snaps (coincidentally this is precisely the service that Blurb offers, handy that).