My Tech Talk Monday: Do You Know About Digital Hoarding?

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Have you heard of the term digital hoarding before? In fact, it's a very interesting yet disgusting topic to me, and the funny thing is that I just got to know about this term or practice few days ago from a tweet, so I decided to write about it. You and I are all victims of digital hoarding; it's something that has now become part of our lives due to the growth of technology.

Enough of the words; let's get to know about digital hoarding. First of all, do you know the number of pictures or videos in your phone's gallery? I guess the answer is no, because you keep on adding more images without deleting the previous ones for fear of losing them, while you don't even need them again after all. Well, I just explained digital hoarding to you like that.

To break it down, because you may still not understand, digital hoarding is a term used to refer to the accumulation of digital files in our electronic devices, such as computers or phones. It is a common practice for you and me. To me, I didn't pay much attention to this practice prior to knowing about it, but now that I know it and its related effects, I have tried to find ways and means to avoid or minimize it to create comfort for myself and the devices. Like I said earlier, it sounds disgusting to me, especially when I relate it to physical hoarding like littering.

Now, to reveal what I have been hiding, I want you to know that digital hoarding is regarded a psychological disorder by some researchers. Sounds strange, right? I just learned that I have a disorder when I discovered this. People with this disorder always find it very hard to get rid of their digital files, and they end up hoarding more and more files on their devices, which has many effects that are mostly overlooked.

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What effects does digital hoarding possess?

Well, if you are a victim and fast enough, by now you should know the potential effects of digital hoarding. The effects are numerous, but the most pressing one for me is the stress that it brings. You know, as you keep on accumulating more files, it becomes stressful to find a single file on the phone or computer. Sounds disgusting, right? There are still more effects, including the slowing down of your device, difficulty finding what you need, the loss of important information, and many more. One important effect I will place emphasis on is the security threats it may bring. You know, hoarding files makes it difficult to keep track of what we have and what we don't, making it easier for hackers to access our personal information.

Although digital hoarding may not seem like a big issue to you, I encourage you to be mindful of it. To me, it sounds disgusting, especially after reading a couple researches on digital hoarding. I have devised ways and means to minimize how I accumulate files on my laptop and phone. Currently, I use cloud storage for my most important files, and I leave the least important ones in local storage so that I can delete them in a week.

Thank you for your time throughout. I will be sharing more on technology on My Tech Talk Mondays on Hive. I would like to know your take on digital hoarding in the comments.

Cheers!
Yours @lifeof.abdul

Read more about digital hoarding through this research