I hope not! I have been involved with creating thousands of print yearbooks in my career as a Yearbook Representative. I enjoy physical books in general, it feels good to touch them, see them, I even like how they smell after getting just a little musty. I like the feeling of knowing that the book is where I put it last… and that is where things start to go sideways.
I know exactly where my High School/College yearbooks are… in a box… on a shelf in the garage… the high shelf, the one I need a ladder to access. I haven’t seen them since I moved into this house… thirty-eight years ago. I religiously attend my High School reunion every five years and before everyone of them I thought it would be nice to get my yearbook and reminisce… and remind myself who I graduated with! But… you know, I gotta pull the car out, get a ladder, which means pulling the other car out, then climbing up the ladder, moving a few boxes out of the way, dragging the box that has my yearbook down the ladder (it’s heavy), finding the High School copy, then sitting down to re-explore my past! Then do everything above in reverse to put it away. As referenced, that sojourn hasn’t happened yet. Maybe for my next reunion… but, probably not. I’m already exhausted just thinking about it!
So, there is a conundrum tucked in there somewhere. What good is a yearbook that you never see? Um… I don’t have a logical answer, but it feels good knowing that I have it?
For the past hundred and sixty years there wasn’t a solution in site. In 2025, one magically appeared. It’s called YearBoxx, the first DIGITAL YEARBOOK.
When I ask people where their yearbook is, I get the hemming and hawing answer. A bunch of staring over my head, clear mental pondering occurring, and finally a vague answer of, “Well, it’s somewhere!” Then some nodding and just a touch of pride in sorta remembering where their beloved yearbook may be.
In a few years from now, that question will be answered very quickly as the respondent grabs their cellphone and says, with comfortable confidence, “Here it is” while they wave it about in the air.
But, it’s not just about accessibility. Someday, when I am feeling oddly energetic, and have finished my punch list of ‘things to do’ before I die, I’ll go get my yearbook, sit down on the garage floor and flip through it, only to realize that I’ve had this experience before… a lot. I’ve seen every picture in my 140-page yearbook many times, there is nothing new. Of course, there can’t be something new, it’s a print yearbook.
Our new age students will have an entirely different experience. Their yearbook will be changing constantly; there will be new pictures and videos. And, right from the beginning, they will have exponentially more ‘memories’ than I could have possibly had in a 140-page yearbook. Their DIGITAL YEARBOOK has no limits to the number of pictures and videos it can contain. It will have the equivalent of a 300, 400, 500-page yearbook. The aging Gen Z population will constantly be finding memories they missed the last time they took this journey down memory lane.
They’ll be able to see where their classmates went to college, where they work, who they married, how cute their children are! There will be new pictures and videos of reunions. Their classmates will be updating their ‘MY PAGE’. And on their friends MY PAGE, there will be the option to connect to EVERYONE, including their teachers. They can leave text and VIDEO messages for each other.
And… because there are no deadlines (yearbook printers need six weeks to print the books and typically a week to ship), YearBoxx can include all the end of year events, like Prom and Graduation! Things can still be added even AFTER it has been handed out!!
There will always be something NEW!
Yes, I still am emotionally comforted to know that my physical, print yearbook is in that box. I think most of my generation (Baby Boomers) feel the same. We grew up with books, that’s all there was. Gen Z grew up (is growing up) with digital devices. Information is instantly accessible, including memories… including new memories.
We, us Baby Boomers, stopped listening to vinyl records decades ago. I don’t miss them, I like having my music instantly accessible, I like that songs can be instantly updated, I like that I don’t have to pay $19.99 for a record that has only 12 songs on it, 8 of which I don’t even like!
Gen Z is going to feel the same way about their print yearbook. Most of our schools next year are going to produce both a print yearbook and a digital yearbook, but I have been surprised by how many are transitioning too just digital.
As students begin to realize that their $75, $100, $150 print yearbook has a great many limitations, how long will it take before students simply want just a digital yearbook, which does a vastly better job of preserving the memories of a most impactful year?
So… are print yearbooks going away? No! There are always going to be schools who still see value in print yearbooks. There has recently been a resurgence in people buying vinyl records. But the people who are buying them are still streaming most of their music.
Tradition is great… until something better comes along.
I’d love to hear your feelings on this subject?
Tom Kehoe, Founder YearBoxx
Website: YearBoxx.com
