A lot of my days, evenings and weekends consist of managing memory cards, digital files and feelings of frustration toward technology. The other day, in the midst of one of my fits of frustration, I realized that I really don’t have the computer to blame for much of my anger, but myself.
The problem is, I’m a digital file hoarder. I struggle to hit the delete button, and when I do, I often have feelings of hesitation. I have terabytes worth of photos saved on multiple external hard drives, and photos dating back to when I got my first digital camera in college.
Some of the files are organized and in order, but over the past two years, it seems as though my lack of organization and effort has taken on a life of its own.
There are probably a few reasons why I’ve allowed my file management to get out of control. It’s easy to simply shut down the computer at night and walk away from it. Unlike dirty dishes sitting in a sink, or piles of dirty laundry, it’s easy to avoid organizing thousands of digital bits of information.
It gives me slight anxiety to think of how I would track down my own sons’ newborn photos, or their annual birthday photos, or anything else that I might want for my own personal use. I know they’re somewhere, and unlike many people, I do make an effort to make hardcopies of my files the old fashion way – through 4x6 prints that get put in a pile and not filed into an album appropriately.
As someone who loves photography and spends a huge amount of time with a camera around her neck, I’ve neglected an important step and that’s the proper preservation of all these files. Of course, they are more than just files – they are moments in time that I want to remember. All the goofy and awkward moments that will be perfect to embarrass my sons as they grow into teenagers and eventually young adults need to be kept safe, and stacks of unorganized external hard drives, along with random packages of 4x6 photos probably aren’t the ideal.
I’m sure anyone who has used a computer knows that technology can fail, and it can be unexpected and heartbreaking to lose large amounts of work, photos, or other crucial files. Of course life goes on, but the human brain isn’t foolproof either, and real memories can also fail.
Not only do I hoard my own personal files, but I hoard other work-related files too. A huge amount of the photos I take, no matter the situation, get saved on my personal computer. My desktop at work isn’t much better than my personal computer and likely has files that are already saved elsewhere in the digital world.
Realistically, I probably could get my files all in order in a day. But I don’t have 24 hours to dedicate to file management and I will likely continue to move forward at least for a while longer living in a word of digital chaos. Thankfully, there’s a handy “search” feature that sifts through my disorder much quicker than I can.
