Christie C. “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” —
Albert Einstein
Last year, I woke up one day to find our Wi-Fi disconnected, and other than the inconvenience of it occurring while Hubby and I were trying to take care of bills and adoption papers for our new fur baby, it turned out that I was not missing the constant dings, rings, and vibrations on each electronic device in the house. I had maximized my patience with notifications, technology, and cyber clutter and I realized just how much my brain hated the hoarding of apps, files, and social media accounts.
What is cyber clutter?
Cyber clutter, formally and academically known as digital hoarding, is the act of collecting excessive cyber material within electronic environments (Bennekom et Al, 2015). In extreme cases, it has become an emerging sub-type of hoarding disorder.
Although I do not personally have this disorder, I do feel the stress of digital hoarding as I watch my limited hard drive space dwindle due to the hoarding of picture files, downloads, programs, and applications. Even with the intention of clearing out and organizing my files, I tend to collect them on an exponential level, which has made organizing them overwhelming.
Types of Cyber Clutter
Digital hoarding or cyber clutter commonly exists in the following spaces:
- Browser tabs
- Desktop icons
- Digital photos
- Electronic file folders
- Email inboxes
- Internet bookmarks
- Music and movie files
- Old documents
- Old software, programs, and apps
- Social media friends and followings, groups, and pages
What are the health impacts of cyber clutter?
- Digital clutter can be mentally draining due to the amount of time required to declutter it. Time is wasted sifting through excessive amounts of emails. If decluttering at work, this reduces productivity.
- Digital clutter can foster an unhealthy attachment to the content stored and an addiction for media (Alan, 2024).
- Lastly, digital clutter can increase feelings of stress and anxiety due to it compromising effective personal data management (Alan, 2023). This can increase the risk of fraud and cybersecurity breaches (Alan, 2023).
Three ways to get rid of cyber/digital clutter
1. If you haven’t used or viewed it in 3 years, delete it.
A 3-year timeframe provides a balanced measure of relevance, accounting for the possibility that you might return to files for long-term projects while excluding clearly outdated content.
Unused files and data accumulate over time, making it harder to find important or relevant items. Old, unused files also occupy valuable space on devices and cloud storage. Deleting them creates room for more current and useful data, potentially saving money on storage upgrades or subscriptions.
2. Set time aside to purge files one at a time
Tackling files one at a time makes the task manageable, reducing stress and making it less likely you’ll abandon the effort midway. Breaking it into smaller tasks is particularly helpful for large, cluttered digital environments.
Reviewing files individually allows you to assess their relevance and importance carefully. This ensures you keep what’s essential and discard unnecessary items without rushing or missing critical content.
3. Reduce desktop icons or apps to only take up 1/4 of your screen
A cluttered desktop can overwhelm your visual and mental space, making it harder to focus. By limiting icons to a small portion of your screen, you maintain a minimalist, distraction-free workspace.
Fewer icons mean it’s easier to locate the apps or files you use regularly. This reduces the time spent searching and enhances efficiency.
By limiting space, you’re forced to keep only the most essential apps and shortcuts visible, helping you prioritize tools you truly need while storing less-used files elsewhere.
Reflections after decluttering digital stuff
It’s still a work in progress, but I was able to make quite a bit of room in my hard drives. Many of my drives contained several duplicates, which really put a strain on my computer’s memory.
I also could see just how pointless it was holding on to files I never use and look at. They were holding me down like the physical clutter in my home.
Clean Environments Improve Mood
In my post Decluttering for Improved Mental Health Part 1: The Hurdles of Clutter, I emphasized that clutter and disorganization cane have negative effects on our brains because “the capacity of the visual system to process information about multiple objects at any given moment in time is limited” (McMains and Kastner, 2011). In other words, we can only visually process a certain number of things at a time; the more disorganized an environment is, the more stress
References
Alan, Henry (2012-10-04). “How to Break Your Media Addiction and Clean Up Your Digital Clutter”. Lifehacker. Retrieved 2024-08-08.
Van Bennekom, Martine J.; Blom, Rianne M.; Vulink, Nienke; Denys, Damiaan (2015). “A case of digital hoarding”. BMJ Case Reports. 2015: bcr2015210814. doi:10.1136/bcr-2015-210814. PMC 4600778. PMID 26452411.
Brown, Richard (2023). 5 Warning Signs You’re a Digital Hoarder. Understanding Behaviors. Retrieved from psychologytoday.com.
