Recently a couple of my friends and I were discussing how we tried to offset our chaotic lives and memory shortfalls with screenshots, saved images, and browser bookmarks.
I had to confess that up until I broke one of the buttons on my cellphone, I was guilty of saving well over 4,000 images from social media apps, websites, and other apps.
My bookmark bar on Google Chrome has remarkably fewer links saved in my personal folder at just over 100.
Now, those numbers still paled in comparison to others in the discussion, but I was well within the top 5 people when I finally navigated away from the chat.
I’m too scared to go back and see how well I fared since others have chimed in after that.
And I’m sure you understand it isn’t real-life fear, but more of a twinge of anxiety or nervousness.
Given that I’ve had most of these digital footprints saved for the better part of seven years, I think I’ve done a fairly good job at not going overboard.
However, my phone has been acting up a lot more recently and is signaling that I’ll have to transition to a newer model soon.
I just don’t look forward to reviewing all of my digital images to pare things down and prepare for the transfer – sort of like a hermit crab outgrowing an old shell and moving into a new one.
Regular pictures are mostly archived on either Facebook or Instagram and aren’t posing as much work to deal with at all.
The rest of them are a daunting task and I don’t even know where to begin at all.
Plus, I have to confess a largely embarrassing fact about said screenshots and other digital files is that they’re quippy, sarcastic, and often sassy memes, jokes and reactions that I do dip into depending on conversations I’m having at any one time.
And I’m aware that almost everything on the internet is just another Google search and several clicks away, but the prospect of having to re-acquire said files after clearing them out is looming over my head as just another extra step.
I even made sure to max out my phone’s storage with a microSD card to keep from having to deal with reviewing so many thousands of files!
But, here I am with my phone nearing the end of its useful life and stubbornly resisting the end as much as I can.
My sister Ashlee tells me that I sound like a hoarder when I complain about my digital storage problem.
At first, I took a bit of offense at that, but she’s made a point of equating my digital collection to other physical ones like my books, CDs, and DVDs.
I do need to clarify that I don’t have thousands of books and my CD/DVD collections are shared across the entire household!
Maybe I need to send her screenshots of the discussion my friend group had so she can’t tease me about my storage problems.
Of course, once I send them to her, I’ll make sure to delete them from my phone right away!
Still, I’m fairly adamant that I don’t have a hoarding problem since they’re all digital files.
Now, over 4,000 physical items being squirreled away with the idea of using them “sometime” when they’re really needed is definitely hoarding.
Plus, I’m sure I’d get overwhelmed and claustrophobic well before I reach 1,000 of anything substantial.
