Hoarding in the Digital Age

How many tabs do you have open right now? How many unread emails or drafts of your latest document? Join Columbia Professor and professional tab hoarder Annie Pfeifer to explore hoarding and clutterphobia as timely afflictions of the information age.

The psychologists Randy Frost and Gail Steketee define hoarding through three characteristics:

1. The failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value…
2.  Extensive clutter in living spaces that precludes activities for which the rooms were designed, and…
3. Significant distress or impairment in functioning caused by hoarding.

But how should we think about digital hoarding? Surprisingly little is known about digital hoarding, partly because it is more difficult to measure, and  partly because standards of organization have not yet been established. The distinction between saving, organizing, and hoarding grow increasingly fuzzy in the infinitely expanding universe of the information age. Given our virtually limitless electronic storage capabilities, should we even still call it hoarding? Faced with unlimited information, how are we supposed to know what to hold onto? Why not save everything if we have the space?

Join us to explore these questions, and more! 

Please note: this is not a self-help salon 😉

Recommended Reading:

1. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/the-hoarders-who-never-clean-their-nightmare-desktops.html
2. https://lithub.com/rebecca-falkoff-on-hoarding-as-a-disavowal-of-mortality/

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