Digital Hoarder? Same. But Here's Why It Matters Now

I’m that person who uploaded all my CDs onto a hard drive during that magical moment between Napster and Spotify, right when the music industry was coming to grips with the disruptions of a new, digital world. And I mean thousands of them, thanks to a mother who collected, years working at a record store and a label, and just being a diehard fan. It took me years to let go of my IRL trash. And at the time, it felt like the sustainable thing to do: ditch the physical clutter, keep the files. More space, less stuff.

But here’s the kicker: digital hoarding takes up space too.

And we rarely think about it. Most people don’t connect the dots between their digital footprint and climate change.

Every duplicate photo, email from 2019, version of deck 52, and dusty old project file sitting in the cloud is being stored on a real, energy-hungry server somewhere. And those servers need buildings. Big ones. Multiply that by billions of people, and suddenly your five forgotten drafts do matter.

Why Digital Hygiene Habits Matter Now

AI is supercharged by memory. And more memory means: more data, more storage, more power. That power has a cost: energy, resources, and infrastructure. We rarely think about where that comes from. 

The future is coming fast, and if we want tech to truly enhance the human experience, we’ve got to be conscious of the impact it has on our planet. 

This Earth Day, consider doing a different kind of cleanup.

Ask yourself:

• How many nearly identical selfies live in your camera roll?

• How many unfinished versions of your pitch decks are in your folders?

• How many files have you backed up “just in case”… that you haven’t touched in years?

Declutter your digital life. Make Earth Day a Delete Day.