Are you a digital hoarder? Inside growing disorder of never deleting

NY Post ^ | 4/18/23 | Jon Mac

[DallasBiff]

Disgraced fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried — the notorious SBF — just may be a digital hoarder.

According to a recent Business Insider report, the laptop of the former FTX CEO is flooded with so much data that FBI officials are working overtime to analyze the content.

But SBF is far from alone in his apparent reluctance to depart with copious amounts of data.

In fact, digital hoarding — a subtype of hoarding disorder that involves the collection of, and difficulty parting with, excessive amounts of digital material — is a growing problem in the US and beyond.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM) recognizes hoarding disorder as a mental illness

[A strike]

“You mean like with a cloth ?”

[fr_freak]

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM) recognizes hoarding disorder as a mental illness

Gotta love these guys. Men having anal sex with other men? Just fine. Men and women getting body parts cut off to pretend they are the opposite sex? Absolutely dandy. But fail to delete old documents and emails and photos from ten years ago? Into the looney bin with ya!

[Paladin2]

The NSA totally concurs....

[Disambiguator]

I just got rid of my collection of 5-1/4” floppy disks in the last few years. Had my 90s data on them. I figured if I didn’t need the data after 25-30 years it was probably ok to ditch them.

The real truth is that they were squirreled away somewhere where I forgot about them.

[abb]

Indeed. Everything is always a ‘crisis’ or a ‘phobia.’ There’s lots more crap folks should worry about than this. Besides, like it was said upthread, hard drive and the cloud is cheap.

[Bubba_Leroy]

I have about 4 TB of digital files that I have accumulated over the past 30+ years. I scan all of my paper files and shred the originals. I also have digital copies of all of the photos, videos, music, audiobooks, and ebooks I have accumulated over the years.

I backup my digital files to multiple redundant backups (5TB portable hard drives are less than $100 now). I have everything fairly well organized, so it is easy to find anything. When I am dead, if my kids don’t want it they can just hit delete.

I have dealt with several actual physical hoarders over the years. There is a world of difference.

[al baby]

Bill should have cleaned that blue dress with one

[Mr. Jeeves]

Probably planning Federal limits on private individual storage capacity. I remember long ago when the first gigabyte hard drives began to appear some salty liberal columnist complained in print that “Nobody needs a billion of anything.” That attitude may still persist among his aging government peers.

[Overtaxed]

I make copies of my copies.

[No.6]

So do good cloud providers … and even synched across disparate facilities and geographies … and for the same reason.

Once is data; twice is backup; three times is data security. (paraphrasing Goldfinger)

[wally_bert]

I used to.

Got very frustrating.

[ifinnegan]

You are so right.

[Albion Wilde]

People with good filing and search skills have no need to get rid of anything. You never know what you might need.

[Right Brigade]

Fill up drive
save what you want
Install new bigger drive.
Transfer os from partition.
Remove old drive or leave it.
Easier than changing oil in your car these days.

[ChildOfThe60s]

I am email blast lists for suppliers. I pretty much don’t have a choice if I want to keep up with new products and dated promos that I can suggest to my customers. But it is a royal PITA keeping up with them and deleting them.

Also I have to keep client emails for 3-6 months for several reasons. I get stuff like “remember that thing I was asking you about last fall, what is the current pricing & availability”. It is somewhat overwhelming, but it’s part of my business. BTW, the same crap piles up on my phone and takes time to delete.

[4Liberty]

Yes, I save everything for legal reasons.
Not “hoarding” reasons.

[Paal Gulli]

The IRS comes to you in 10 years and tells you they want to audit your 2022 tax return, you gonna tell ‘em, “I deleted it three years ago”?

[Shady]

I kept everything at work, If I deleted something from 2005 I would need it the following week. This saved my buttinski more than once and my Team even more often. I had it all organized and my Bosses were grateful that I did.

[pax_et_bonum]

I hope you remember me, dear al baby.

😉

[ChildOfThe60s]

I know just what you mean.

I talk to someone on the phone and then ask for written email confirmation of our discussion and then I have to save that for a loooong time to cover my ass.