INFO: Are you a Digital Hoarder?!?

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Hi, my name is John Doe, and I am a digital hoarder.”

A digital hoarder is less conspicuous as compared to those whose homes that we see in reality TV shows–hoarders whose houses are cluttered with massive stacks of books, magazines, bottles, boxes of all shapes and sizes, and every single piece of junk the world could ever muster. A digital hoarder, also known as an e-hoarder, is someone who excessively collects and stores large quantities of data into their devices. These would include songs, movies, software, pictures, emails, and everything else that can be obtained, uploaded, and stored in cyberspace. Digital hoarding is a common reality.  In fact, it is an increasing problem as most digital hoarders  don’t realize that they have become one.

Hoarding is not the same as collecting. Collecting can be considered a hobby – shoes, vintage figurines, retro games, and so on. It is often linked to a person’s passion for a particular object. Hoarding, on the other hand, is essentially gathering stuff, believing each and everything has some sort of value even if in reality it has no value at all.   As  Josh Zerkel, a professional organizer, would put it, “It goes beyond just lack of organization - it turns into disorder”.

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Digital hoarding may also be destructive because the idea of discarding a file, a music, or a particular data causes much distress to the person. E-hoarders will gather data from anywhere and everywhere. These are the people who do not delete emails not because they are important; but they simply don’t want to part with them.  This holds true to photos, videos or music that they haven’t even viewed, watched or listened to.   Most of these hoarders will even purchase extra storage just to put all those data in.  Chances are, they won’t even have the time to appreciate what they’ve obtained. Are you the type who keeps random emails from ten years ago? Or someone who can’t let go of a software such as Encarta ’95 (‘90s kids will get it) installed in your PC, when it’s already 2014? Collectors will keep the CD and the box in a shelf. A hoarder will have it somewhere around the house; an e-hoarder will still have it in his rig.

HERE ARE THE TYPICAL HABITS OF A DIGITAL HOARDER:

A digital hoarder will back up the backups in the same drive and when storage is full, the hoarder will find other means to save data, such as cloud or purchasing another hard drive.

Chances are, mobile phones of digital hoarders are full of contacts of people they haven’t called or they could not even recall.  We might as well mention those who have loads and loads of unused apps and those who keep a 64GB worth of selfies.

Like hoarders that turn their homes in to a disgusting and filthy one, a digital hoarder has a colossal number of files scattered all over his desktop. If, and only if by some divine intervention, he manages to discard some stuff into the trash bin, expect it to remain in that bin for the remainder of that PC’s lifetime – unless he/she restores it.

Now that we’ve addressed a thing or two about digital hoarding, the question now is how to avoid becoming one.

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LET IT GO

Let go of emails, spam or junk mails from ten years ago.   For movies, if it is the kind of movie that doesn’t warrant a second viewing, delete it.  For pictures, if it is all selfies, you could probably delete them as I’m sure they’ll be a lot more coming.  Of course, if they’re moments with friends and family, keep them.

ORGANIZING FILES

The lack of organization may lead to an early sign of becoming a digital hoarder. Create folders, and sort out your music, pictures, and whatnots. Make another personal folder where you can keep all those sorted folders in. Doing so will help you keep your files organized, tidy and nicer to look at.  It may even make your device run faster.

GET CLEANED UP

Decide what is important and what is not.  This is easier said than done.  For a hoarder, this would seem to be an impossible task. They could probably seek help from someone – preferably a Buddhist monk for infinite patience.

GET AWAY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media overload may be considered as digital hoarding. Too much of it is not a good thing. Go out and get some air.  Stop stalking people and ogling at their happiness or smirking on their miseries. Live in the real world.

STOP WITH DOWNLOADS ALREADY!

Stop downloading movies and songs that you won’t even bother watching or listening to. For mobile apps, I know that there are so many apps to download and most of them are free; but how many of these apps will you really use? Determine and decide which apps would be worth your time and space for storage.  Get rid of useless and unnecessary apps.

There are more ways on how to avoid clutter and I’m pretty sure you are well aware of it. Perhaps the first big step to avoid digital hoarding is to realize and accept the fact that anyone who has a smartphone, PC or tablet with Wi-Fi connectivity has the potential of becoming one.

http://www.mb.com.ph/are-you-a-digital-hoarder/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_hoarding