Diogenes syndrome is one in which the person has a tendency to excessively accumulate useless objects and even garbage, under the belief that they could be useful at some point in their life. This disorder has an equivalent that is transferred to the technological field: digital Diogenes syndrome.
This is a very common circumstance today, when we regularly use electronic devices such as phones, tablets and computers, in which we store a large amount of data and information. Traditional Diogenes syndrome and its digital variant are completely independent, so you can suffer from the second without the first occurring.
Digital Diogenes syndrome refers to when a person accumulates excessive and unnecessary information on their technological devices. These store a large amount of data, files and documents that will probably never be useful. In addition, they are usually distributed in a disorderly and chaotic way, making them difficult to classify or find when you are looking for something specific.
It can be present in all of a person’s technological devices and applications: their messages, their contact list, their photographs and videos, emails, social networks and other applications, documents, etc. In addition to dealing with a large number of accumulated files, they are disorganized. The person is not aware that he has an accumulation disorder problem, he believes that he may need all those files at some point and it is difficult for him to let go of that data.
The consequences of digital Diogenes syndrome range from saturation in the storage memory of devices – with a consequent slowdown in their operation or loading times – as well as the need to constantly expand storage space by paying for cloud services or buying external cards and drives. It also generates stress due to information saturation and lack of control, and anxiety or anguish at the mere idea of having to delete or organize files. In addition, it represents a greater risk in terms of cybersecurity.
If your terminals are excessively full of files, documents and data, which you never use and you are afraid or anxious about deleting them, you may have digital Diogenes syndrome. It can manifest itself in an accumulation of blurry, unrecognizable or useless images, messages or emails that you will never read again, spam, applications that you do not use, unnecessary documents, etc.
To remedy this, the first step is to thoroughly clean the devices, eliminating everything that does not entail a real need. Do this every once in a while to make sure the situation is under control. Likewise, organizing the information and files that you do want to keep is also important.