Understanding Digital Hoarding: Causes, Impacts, and How to Overcome It According to an IPB Expert

Have you ever felt a heavy heart when wanting to delete old photos, screenshots, or conversation histories that are actually no longer needed? This seemingly trivial habit can develop into digital hoarding, a behaviour of excessively accumulating digital data to the point where a person finds it difficult to delete it.

Agung Minto Wahyu, SPsi, MSi, a lecturer in the Family and Consumer Sciences (IKK) programme at IPB University, explained that this phenomenon is not merely a technical issue of storage capacity. According to him, digital hoarding is closely related to the psychological relationship between the owner and their digital data.

"The problem is not the number of files we have, but how much control we feel we have over our own digital data," said Agung.

Saving memorable photos or important documents is normal. However, Agung reminded the public to be vigilant if they are unable to delete files that are clearly useless, especially if it begins to disrupt productivity and daily life. This condition creates a vicious cycle: a person continues to save files until they lose the ability to distinguish between what is important and what is digital rubbish. Instead of providing a sense of security, the pile of data actually triggers stress and feelings of being overwhelmed.

Agung explained that digital hoarding is closely related to anxiety and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Furthermore, an unorganised accumulation of data directly lowers productivity because time is wasted just searching for files amidst a pile of irrelevant information, leading to information overload.

To break the chain of data hoarding, Agung suggested several practical steps for the public. "The power of a memory is not determined by whether the file is still on our phone or not. What is more important is building a more conscious relationship with our digital information," concluded Agung.