e-hoarding?
Saturday morning I turned on my laptop, to do the necessary things I had to do in the morning and after I finished the tasks I had for that day, I thought I'd look for a doc I saved as I needed that for my research. Looking though my folder, I had to realize I have so many things saved in there over time and didn't even realize they are there. At that point it was obvious that the only smart thing I could do was to take some time and clean the folder. So I started deleting, deleting, deleting and after 10 minutes, I got rid of 100s of screenshots, photos, collages, PDF files and so on. Those were outdated things I did not need anymore, but how could I know I did not need them, when I didn't even realize I had them.
Digital hoarding (also known as e-hoarding, e-clutter, data hoarding, digital pack-rattery or cyber hoarding) is defined by researchers as an emerging sub-type of hoarding disorder characterized by individuals collecting excessive digital material which lead to those individuals experiencing stress and disorganization. Digital hoarding takes place in electronic environments where information is stored digitally.
Several studies suggest the main influential factors of digital hoarding are related to a number of issues and personal reasons which includes reduced costs for storing data, individuals lacking time to curate accumulated data, the perceived lifespan of data and emotional attachment to digital assets. The studies conducted to examine digital hoarding are limited in scope as this is an emerging area of study. There is a lack of agreement among researchers about whether digital hoarding is a condition to be treated rather than a normal human activity. source
So the term digital hoarder exists, I knew that a long time ago and was thinking, am I a digital hoarder?
After going through the definition and reading up on what they mean by it, I can assure you, I'm not a digital hoarder. Hoarders are usually attached to their things and can't let go of them. I'm not like that, so I asked myself, how on earth I got myself in this situation? Why do I have so many digital things stored? And the answer is simple. This is also a form of procrastination. You download something as you think you need it, but then never make time to read it or study it. The classical and well known "later". But when is later? Later is when you make it happen, if you make it happen. If you don't make it happen, then later becomes never.
I was thinking of how we live these days. Everything is digitized, most of the things are automated, so we are storing a lot of data, one way or another. From confirmation emails to notifications, you name it. Not to mention the tons of garbage emails we get because some platforms are selling our details to third parties.
Do you ever go over the tons of garbage you are storing to make sure you get rid of the things you don't need? Do you delete emails you don't need anymore? Or store them for later, in case you need them?
What about bookmarks? 😂 Yeah, bookmarks! I had to realize I'm a bookmark hoarder on Twitter. I used to hate Twitter as it's a very toxic environment (especially crypto Twitter), but then I realized if you follow the right crowd and know how to avoid toxicity, something good can come out of it eventually.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not following the so called celebrities or influencers, to see what they are trying to force us to wear or what they think about how I have to wear my hair to be trendy. That is sheer stupidity and waste of time. But I like to follow a few people who seem to know what they are talking about and some news outlets too.
So after my folder cleaning, I thought it would be nice to go over my Twitter bookmarks and do a proper cleanup there too. Oh boy! I had to scroll through a lot of bookmarks and had to realize I have a bunch of threads I saved to learn from them later and never actually did. This is not hoarding, this is procrastination at the highest level and I'm not proud of it at all.
The thing is, being flooded with all kinds of notifications and not having proper data management, can backfire easily and fast.
Privacy. Absolute myth. No such thing.
Said Harrison Ford in Paranoia. Then later on, Lucas Till had a smart advice for him.
You should really trash your emails when you're done reading them.
Someone's always listening Jock. Always.
Tells Liam Hemsworth to Harrison Ford in the same movie, after the latter realizes he's been taped.
Today we witnessed a hack, which most likely caused some damage. It's not really clear how much yet, but some people most likely got hurt. With proper management, this should have never happened, but it happened.
As safety always comes first, no matter how busy you are, you should always make time to put things in order and do proper data management. This was a wake up call for me, so I made cleaning and evaluating things a priority. Space is limited anyway, so some cleaning and revising from time to time is welcome anyway.
So what about you? Are you a hoarder or an excessive bookmarker? Is your data safe? Do you trash the emails you don't need anymore? I'm not going to ask about further cleaning as that's too technical, but you most likely know what I mean.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
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Oh, I can totally relate to this! Don’t think I’m a hoarder either, but like you, I just leave things there and forget about them. Out of sight out of mind kinda approach 😉
Same here, but I think not anymore as I started cleaning heavily 😂
I’m hoping to follow your tracks soon! 😁
It's up to you but now you know, so why delay it 😀
Cause it’s almost bedtime 🥱 😂
Seriously though, I have been thinking of sorting out my picture albums especially. Adding them from my phone is cool when they’re recent, but when I want to write about something from months ago, the scrolling is unbearable and when I sort them out in folders on my laptop, this should be easier. So I’ll start in new week. I swears! 😁
!PIZZA
Lol, I download most of my photos to my external hard drive and sert them in folders as otherwise it would be total chaos 😅
Good luck with sorting photos 📸
Thank you! I might do that too in fact. Always good to have a spare copy
Exactly. Good luck 👍
I tend to have way too many Hive tabs open at once, maybe that's hoarding?
This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project
Nope, that is temporary and limited as you can't have 300 tabs open.
True, I think my record was around a hundred 😂
!PIZZA
I can definitely relate to what you're saying. I'm not a digital hoarder, but I do have a tendency to accumulate a lot of digital clutter. I think it's partly because it's so easy to save things these days. We can easily download files, save emails, and bookmark websites without really thinking about it. And before we know it, our digital lives are overflowing with stuff.
I think the key is to be intentional about our digital clutter. We need to regularly go through our files and delete anything we don't need. We also need to be careful about what we save. If we're not sure if we'll need something, it's better to delete it.
I also think it's important to have a system for organizing our digital clutter. This could be as simple as creating folders for different types of files, or using a cloud storage service like Dropbox or Google Drive. Having a system in place will make it easier to find what we need when we need it.
I know it can be a pain to go through our digital clutter, but it's worth it in the long run.
I think we are the same to some extent, we tend to save and store stuff, sometimes even more than we need. Then we forget or procrastinate organizing and deleting what we don't need.
That is very true and should never be forgotten, or overlooked. Well said.
It can be a pain, but if you do it regularly, then it's not a lot as you don't let the unnecessary things to build up.
Thanks for the opinion @malos10.
I do lots of bookmarking
Good to know, thanks.
Without an "e" I tend to be a hoarder but definitely not because I want my place filled with unnecessary stuff just because I'm too cheap to throw them away. Quite the opposite, I like my place clean. It's just that being handy and DIYer I can repurpose or upcycle most of them. Last time I had to change place at a short notice I threw away things that others would consider priceless but let's not remember that and how it all happened.
Speaking about the "e" world, I also keep my disks as clean as possible but internet helps so much more on that as there's very specific things one really needs to save on their machines - the rest can be found elsewhere. Still I do have some pretty old stuff saved but as long as their size is small and their number is not crazy...why not?
I found the term "e-hoarder" spot on but funny as well. At the end of the day our e-world kinda "suffers" from the habits we have developed in the "real" one.
I also have things I don't throw away as i know at some point I'm going to need and use them. I'm not the throw away and buy new ones type of person, I like to reuse and recycle, so I understand what you mean, perfectly, and agree too.
My next big cleaning job will be the photos. I take at least 2 shots, always and promise myself to delete what I don't need, then never have the time 😂 so one nice sunny day, I have to do it 😕
I try to focus on the first shot to avoid that. And you know, that nice sunny day you'd like to be outdoors rather than deleting photos 🙂
Enjoy your days in any case!
Lol, you're right, but there's a saying in Hungarian, that's why I mentioned the sunny day.
Have a nice weekend :)
I have two different collections. My personal and work digital cluster. Personnel cluster just builds up due to not getting rid of it after using it. No obsession. Mostly pictures and screenshots. They accumulate quickly. Every once in awhile I de-clutter.
Work is a little different, I save a lot emails thinking I may need them for later. Many different folder categories. I even had historic emails in my deleted folder. I had one time had over 20K in my deleted folder. Why? Because a lot were passenger requests or group travel records. You would be surprised how often customers come back and put blame or request information. It's nice to reply back to CYOA (cover you own @ss) or give them requested information.
During the pandemic I worked at home during part of it and was able to delete so many old emails. I'd say about 5k were obtained each year. I decided that I only needed a 1 year history. Well happy to say I don't work on passenger reservations anymore so I don't have much of a deleted folder anymore.
I will say digital cleaning feels somewhat the same as physical cleaning. I guess it feels nice to clean up and gain useable space. We can obtain a lot of data on our hand held and personal devices can't we? Lol. I'm sometimes not proud of it and do chip away at it.
Work stuff is different as you need to be careful what you delete, you never know what you're going to need, or when, but even in that case, I don't think it's justified to keep 3 or 4 years old stuff. So cleaning those old things is recommended from time to time.
Looks like you have a well established and working system already, so you're on the right track 😃
I couldn't agree more. Well said. I have an 1TB external hard drive, which is half full (or half empty? 😂), but even so, I think there's room for some cleaning, so it's coming up next.
Thanks for the comment and have a nice weekend.
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