Storing Excess Digital Data A Sign of Distress, Say Experts

While many people tend to keep excess stuff in their homes or storage areas, the new phenomenon of "digital hoarding" describes those who can't manage to thin out their online photo albums or clean their inboxes. Like physical hoarding, digital hoarding can also be detrimental to your mental health, experts say.

“It's something that triggers a lot of stress and anxiety, the collection of emails, pictures, open tabs — an overwhelming number of digital items that trigger overload,” said Dr Susan Albers, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to CNN.

She added, “What's interesting about it is that this isn't the type of problem that our ancestors have had to face, but when we fast-forward to today, our daily life is really plagued with a lot of digital clutter.”

It's possible that everyone who uses a digital gadget will eventually encounter this kind of clutter. However, occasionally, the typical practice can degenerate into a disorder—digital hoarding—that more academics are attempting to comprehend.

According to Dr. Emanuel Maidenberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, the urge to hoard may stem from one's wish to preserve memories with photographs or keep unnecessary records and files from previous employment or college courses as a precaution. All of this can be considered digital hoarding.

He said, “It becomes a habit that is motivated by anxiety, and that's when it becomes challenging and difficult. It has to do with the fear of needing this information at some point in the future and yet not having access to it and not knowing where to find it.”

According to a 2019 study that polled hundreds of adults in the UK, hoarding is a prevalent workplace practice and is thought to be linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are four different sorts of digital hoarding, according to a 2020 follow-up study: organized people, disorganized people, people who hold digital information for their companies, and people who keep it away from people they care about and are frequently afraid of losing it.

Storing digital clutter that crosses over into a disorder depends on the individual, but a key factor is when it causes significant distress or impairment in everyday functioning, said Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, psychiatrist and director of clinical and research affairs at the Boston-based International OCD Foundation.

Dr. Susan Albers believes decluttering is the magic wand for your mental well-being. She suggests setting aside a short period of time every morning to perform a digital audit, eliminating unnecessary emails and other notifications. The remainder of your day will be far more productive if you take a few minutes to tidy up before you begin working.