An Audrey Hepburn black and white canvas, a Marilyn Monroe box set, and a coffee book collection neatly arranged. Other than a few trinkets and artefacts showcasing who I am, my room is plain. Organised. I never hoard; I rejoice in waving goodbye to unloved pieces. Click on my laptop and browse my phone however, and you’ll notice digital hoarding.
Realising a problem
600 photos deleted last month. I felt ecstatic. Most were VSCO filtered shots, and I believe it’s only worth keeping original files. My old moody A4 preset doesn’t belong with my bright N1. Some of my deleted images captured repetitive sunshine views and buildings abroad. Others were random selfies and frozen moments bearing no significance.
You would think with such a clear out, my digital hoarding is non-existent. I haven’t confessed to the thousand photos saved on Google Drive, my phone is running on limited space and I continue emailing myself photos I would hate to lose. I’ve prepared myself for every scenario, especially as my teenage self always forgot to back-up memories.
I know there’s a problem because I struggle to find things. A recent BBC article on digital hoarding shared professor Jo Ann Oravec’s opinion: “If they get to that point where they’ve become overwhelmed by the data that they’ve got… that may indicate that there’s some kind of problem.”
Digital hoarding vs. traditional
Considering how tidy and organised my physical objects are, I’m surprised I struggle so much online. While I’m not as extreme as some cases – a man in Amsterdam saves 1,000 digital photos a day – I do find what I have overwhelming. Which I believe is the main point. As a writer, my files bury countless Word docs and my emails burden work tasks and updates.
I’m petrified of deleting them. What if I need a work email in the future? What if I have to prove I worked with a brand and need an email from them confirming our collaboration? In 2016, Mel magazine discussed digital hoarding and writer Devon Maloney said “Digital hoarding is especially slippery because these days everyone does it, even if just by accident.”
While traditional hoarding associates emotional attachments to objects, digital hoarding combines emotions with anxiety and fears of deletion. We’re encouraged to invest in the Cloud and Drive, and we’re also bombarded with spam, pointless DM’s and subscription emails we never subscribed to. There’s a lazy element to overfilled inboxes along with an obsession to keep ‘just in case’.
Where to begin?
Close friends know I’m reckless digitally. Two websites I use to write for have shut down and I didn’t screenshot or save the articles I wrote for them. My response, they’re old and not meaningful today. Thousands of beloved photos have disappeared from phones breaking and invisible memory cards. Though I like digital hoarding, I have learnt to move forward.
Perhaps my ability to remember past events helps me stay calm. Don’t we all love saying it’s great to look back on past images? We spend 5 minutes once in a blue moon reminiscing, before we feel present issues need attending to. Is it healthy to put Marie Kondo’s methods on our digital space? To scroll through our files and ask if they make us feel good?
Healthline.com shares suggestions on where to begin. Setting up filters, auditing each month as well as checking through your downloads folder on a weekly basis. Despite my Pinterest, I have a habit of saving ‘inspiration’ screenshots. Like old images, I rarely see them.
What will happen in the future?
When my grandmother passed away, she left a book she put together, tracing back my family line from the 1700’s. She left her wedding album, a bag full of photos of my grandparents and ancestors, in addition to some treasured photo albums. How will future generations cope when their loved ones leave thousands upon thousands of images, files and digital stuff?
Is more always more? Part of me wants to separate my special photos from the not so special. Me overlooking the views of Barcelona – keep; me standing by a white wall in my house – feel free to delete. We are the generation who love taking photos for the sake of taking. At what point do we stop?
Are you a digital hoarder? How easy it to remove old files?
I’m SUCH a digital hoarder! I mean… what if I will want it later? Or… well… I have lots and lots of reasons to keep eeeverything XD
I am like that as well but at the same time, the photos I have deleted, I’ve forgotten about now. It’s kind of like some of the clothes I’ve thrown away from my wardrobe.
I know I would never miss any of them if they were gone, buuuut… you know, another excuse 🙂
Ah, we are so like-minded girl! I’m such a digital hoarder! I have so many pics and screenshots that my whole storage on my laptop got so full. I’ve tried deleting a lot but there is always a what if situation in case I need it for the future. I still have a 1000 images on my phone that I have to delete since I’m a huge photo craze lol. I def need to improve on this digital hoarding. I’m really trying but it’s hard to get over now that we live in the tech generation. Great post ❤️
Thank you girl! I have around 1,000 photos as well. I’m trying to select my favourites to store with drive, and then slowly get rid of the rest. I think with photos, it’s hard because we subconsciously tell ourselves that all photographs are memories. There’s probably quite a few that if deleted, we wouldn’t even remember. x
I think in terms of taking photos, I am not too bad. I take what I need to take and go. I’m pretty much a point-and-shoot photographer and as long as I have high quality equipment (an Iphone? haha), I’m good to go. I also hardly edit my photos and for the ones I do edit (such as for the blog), I do that on my laptop and save the copies on my USB after I’m finished with uploading them on here.
A girl I used to know though would take so many photos before she ate so I dread to think what her photo roll must be on.
I usually take around 10 -15 photos at a time and then choose which ones to post on my blog. And then I cut down to maybe 5 or 6 to save to my phone, But the issue is as I’m taking photos every week, it all adds up. My holiday ones take up the most space and the ones in summer. I find it near impossible to delete my countless view shots lol.
It’s a great idea to save copies on your USB and to take what you need and go. Back with film camera, you were really limited so each photo had to be considered. But with digital now and phones, you can take countless shots which kind of encourages us to keep going.
Digital hoarding is such a problem for me, especially with e-mails and photographs. I’ve downloaded numerous apps like Flic (super helpful, btw!) to help declutter, but for some inane reason, it’s just so hard to let go! Even the photos that don’t really have a huge significance- I convince myself that someday, somewhere I’ll need that particular picture for whatever reason and if I don’t have it, I’ll regret it. It’s funny, how our brains work, haha. This form of “holding-on” isn’t the best for me or my iCloud memory!
Khanak x
http://www.khanakm.com
I need to look at this app Flic – I’ve not heard of it before. I think it’s because we are told that photographs are memories, and it’s hard to therefore delete. Our own objects like books and clothes are easier in a way because we can justify getting rid of them. But because photos hold such significance or the idea of them even, it’s hard to press delete. That’s what I think anyway lol.
Thank you Khanak! x
The messy digital drawers that never get cleaned out are surely a big task to confront to my mind. I have files and folders from 2 decade on my old desk top, and the back up of past couple of laptops. Only now with my current laptop I have become skilled at keeping it clean and updated frequently. My phone I would say I am at a medium at deleting promptly what can be. Emails …at a every phase new email communications feel important enough not to delete so there is a record …but the it is so difficult now to take the time and go back to clean it up. I have too many emails saved over the years. This certainly is one modern problem that needs awareness 🙂
It’s great you are keeping on top of things with your new laptop. I’m the same as you and have so many emails saved from the past few years. I would need plenty of hours to go through them all. Unlike real life where most of us only have a limited amount of space for storage, the online world offers plenty, and I think that’s why it’s becoming such a problem. Thank you as always for sharing your thoughts. 🙂
I struggle with this but also don’t, it’s strange I have an attachment to some images and pictures I’ll save things got later just because I may need them, and at other times I will delete everything I get my hands on.
Sometimes I like deleting photos but I’ve started noticing this month, how stressful it is trying to find things on my phone and laptop. I don’t know whether the answer is to stop ‘hoarding’ and delete more, or just to create dozens of folders.
I am such a digital horder! I’ve started printing out the ones I want to keep forever through the freeprints app! I have 1000 photos on my phone but it’s hard for me to press delete!
That’s a great idea. I’ve not looked into printing my phone images before, but it would make a lot of sense. Especially as I love photo albums.