Picture hoarding is becoming almost an epidemic in today’s society. I’m not talking about physically hoarding pictures but rather digitally hoarding them. Dictionary.com defines hoarding as “a supply or accumulation that is hidden or carefully guarded for preservation, future use, etc.” I like to define digital picture hoarding as “never deleting any picture you’ve ever taken including pictures of past homework and screenshots of old conversations”. If you’re reading this and blushing because you know that I just described you, don’t worry, I just described myself too.
I may or may not still have screenshots on my phone of tattoos I thought I wanted four years ago, I may or may not have five different pictures at five different angles of the white board in my 8th grade algebra class reading TEST THURSDAY, and I may or may not have 27 photos of the fireworks from the fourth of July in 2013…
Hoarding pictures isn’t exactly a bad thing. Granted, as a picture hoarder myself, I may be a bit biased, but hey, at least we’re not hurting anybody. The only real thing we’re hurting is the storage space on our phones and that “there is not enough storage to download iOS 4 thousand” message that pops up on our phone screens when a new update has just been released. There are worse things in the world than having over ten thousand photos stored on our phones, right?
Or wrong? Studies show that having clutter in your virtual life (your e-mail, camera roll, etc.) translates into clutter in your real life. Stressed, feeling overwhelmed? Try deleting junk emails or getting rid of screenshots you have from 2012. It may be a small step, but as the saying goes, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” In this case, man is your digital storage and mankind is your wellbeing.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. I can’t just delete these photos! They hold sentimental value to me. It’s like completely erasing a memory from my mind. There’s no way I can do that. What if I need it or simply want to just look back at it later in the future?
Let me ask you something. When will you ever want to look back at pictures of old notes from 9th grade physical science class? When will you ever need that extremely blurry photo of your untied shoe? I know this might sound crazy, but you may never need to look back on that brace-faced black and white selfie you set as your Facebook profile picture in 7th grade.
As I’m writing this to you, I realize I’m also speaking to myself. I am no exception to this. I love looking back at old pictures, no matter how useless or worthless they may be. When I delete pictures, I feel like I’m losing a part of me, like I just deleted a memory I may never be able to get back. I know that this kind of thinking is foolish and I know that I should erase unnecessary photos I have, but I simply can’t bring myself to do it. Through writing this article, I have discovered that I am a picture hoarder and I am proud. You should be too.
