Confessions of a Digital Hoarder

The paperless office is finally here, and there is no longer an excuse for needless clutter or carrying around excessive amounts of paperwork in this digital age where we are bombarded with near limitless amounts of online storage.

Although the in/out filing trays have mostly been removed, and our desks might appear much tidier, it appears that our primal hoarding urges have migrated out of sight into the digital space. For example, every photo, screenshot or image from a What’s App conversation currently automatically gets updated to my Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive and Box online storage. I am more than aware that this is complete overkill, but too much backup is never a bad thing, right?

I am also the first to admit that I seem to have developed an insatiable appetite for consuming online content via Flipboard and LinkedIn Pulse. Articles that strike a chord or are of extreme interest will then get added to a read it later app such as Pocket. Many of these articles will probably never be read again, but they are nicely filed away just in case that information will come in handy one day.

While planning my next holiday, I found myself adding pins on Pinterest and out of nowhere reached my epiphany. Isn’t Pinterest, just digital hoarding? In fact isn’t everything that I now do online involve an element of 21st-century e-hoarding?

As for emails, I have a strict regime of not deleting anything, and if this written communication is of any importance, it will be filed away into an appropriate folder, I even have 6-year-old goodbye email from my friend Sam that I send him every few years.

Experience has taught me that three years from now, that project closure email will come in very handy when someone arrives at my desk asking for some vital information so I continue to hoard emails of every nature, but deep down I know that it's time to take action and tidy up my digital footprint.

A quick search online revealed I am quite late coming to this conclusion as information obesity or “infobesity” is actually a real thing now, inevitably leading to books such as the Information Diet appearing on the scene.

The content wars well are well and truly underway with Apple joining Pulse, Flipboard and Feedly to spoonfeed us all we can eat material that is creating an infomania of sorts.

I also ponder the fact that we are increasingly tweaking our information channels only to deliver a form of selective exposure that just ends up reinforcing our beliefs rather than challenge them.

We know we’re products of the food we eat. Why wouldn’t we also be products of the information we consume? – The Information Diet.

Many of the online tools such as Pocket, Evernote, Pinterest or even Plex help me organise and manage my digital clutter entirely, but I have to question if I really need all this stuff that I have accumulated over the years.

The constant bombardment of limitless information often creates the infamous fear of missing out and not wanting to be the one by the water cooler blissfully unaware of the next big thing. Equally life is too short to be obsessed with a deluge of data, so maybe it’s time for a little self-reflection.

Although my living space is completely clutter free, and my ruthless quest for tidiness resulted in essential items surviving a cull, only to be placed inside a man tin. However, it appears I was in denial at just how much stuff I was hoarding online.

With numerous hard drives (yes even in the man tin) at hand, along with an inexhaustible supply of online storage options, the reality of me ever finding that old document or news clipping is probably quite slim.

There are quite a few TV shows illustrating the psychological effects of excessive hoarding with physical items in our homes and most of us shake our head in disbelief when watching. However, how long until we tackle our dirty little secret of digital hoarding?

The wake-up call for Apple users usually surfaces when they try to perform an operating system upgrade, backup or even take a photo. If this lack of available storage message has ever appeared on your device, then you too could a part of this growing trend.

I have made myself a little promise to be as ruthless with my digital content as I am with my physical items, so it’s time to throw caution to the wind. One thing is for certain though, I guarantee that approximately 10 days’ time, someone will ask me for something I have just deleted and maybe that’s what got me into this mess in the first place.

Are you a digital hoarder? How do you manage the increasing influx of information that dominates our lives?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below or contact me if you would like to share your opinion on my soon to be launched Podcast.

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Thanks for reading. You can find my previous LinkedIn articles here, and you can also connect on Twitter at @neilchughes or contact me via my site Technology Blog Writer where I help businesses with their blogs.

You can also find me over at the LinkedIn's Publishers and Bloggers Group where I collaborate and support like-minded bloggers.