Some people just cannot let go of their things even they’re old, useless or just a nuisance, some people just never throw things away. Traditionally, we would call them hoarders, but in this modern age, hoarders are taking things to the next step.

Peri Sedge is an IU senior who describes herself as a digital hoarder. Don’t worry if you are not familiar with the term.

Digital hoarding was first defined in 2015 as an unwillingness to get rid of clutter we collect on our digital devices be it through work, our personal lives or everything in between. Just like physical hoarding, the digital version stems from the owners fear of permanently losing something important, even if others do not value it or see it as easily replaceable.

In Sedge’s case, it means she has 38,813 photos and 3,017 videos on her phone as well as 42,266 on her laptop. One of her three inboxes has 28,478 emails in it, a majority unread.

“When I was younger my parents saved pictures of me and my brothers and them when they were younger,” Sedge said. “This is how I save pictures and luckily the cloud is just there holding them.”

Furthermore, she said it helps her to reflect on key life moments or simply relive a lively moment when ever she is bored.

The increasing amount of storage capacity on our devices, namely our phones, and cloud storage has allowed for millions of Americans, like Sedge, to feel less obligated to press delete or get rid of their digital clutter.

“I’m going to keep hoarding, they keep making it easy, it’s so easy,” Sedge said.

Sedge said the tech companies and her service provider have only enabled her problem and she first began to notice after she replaced her phone a few months ago. She said her old phone had 128 gigabytes, which was more than enough storage, but when it broke, her provider suggested she update to a phone to an even larger capacity of 256 gigabytes. In addition, her provider included cloud storage in her plan, without telling her, so now she said, she has more storage than she ever thought was necessary.

“I didn’t even know about it, I am paying $2.99 a month to increase that storage on top of all of that to have all these photos,” she said. “They’ve made it so I have to have all my photos on my phone, like I have to have them in the cloud, where else are they going to go, am I going to print them out?”

Sedge says if her provider and phone manufacturer are going to make it attractive to have all this space, then what’s the harm in never getting rid of her digital clutter?

According to the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST), digital hoarding can lead to many cyber security issues because the stored data could be hacked and in turn, be used to manipulate or harm the owner. Furthermore, many companies tend to keep confidential records that date back several years meaning disgruntled employees or anyone with access can expose things like trade secrets, personal photos or other private or classified materials.

One could argue that anyone is at risk of being hacked, regardless of if they are a digital hoarder. And to that, CREST would say you are right, but by hoarding so much, hackers will essentially have access to your entire life. Or in Sedge’s case, her entire life since 2013 because that’s how far back her digital photo library dates.

So the goal then, should be to get rid the pile of junk that is your digital clutter. Even Sedge, admitted that she has started doing so, but only out of necessity.

“Reduce your clutter it’s kind of effective,” she said. “I have 250 gigabytes on my computer, but I only have 50 available – but last week or so I had 25, I had to delete a lot of stuff, a lot of pictures.”

Sedge says after getting rid of some of her clutter, her laptop now runs faster, which gives her a sense of relief and that she does not miss the things she deleted.

Visit these sites for strategies on avoiding digital hoarding:

5 Strategies to Stop Digital Hoarding 

http://www.thesolutionfirm.com/blog/?p=524