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Picture this: thousands of screenshots, unopened text messages and emails, and a looming notification that your phone’s storage is almost full. For many, this is the new reality in the digital age.
But if your device has too much digital clutter, it can impact your mental health and productivity, experts say.
“It’s something that causes a lot of stress and anxiety, the collection of emails, photos, open tabs — an overwhelming number of digital items that cause overload,” says Dr. Susan Albers, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
“The interesting thing about it is that these are not the kinds of problems that our ancestors had to deal with, but if we fast forward to today, our daily lives are really plagued by a lot of digital clutter,” she added.
Anyone with a digital device will likely encounter such clutter at some point. But sometimes the common behavior can turn into a disorder that more and more researchers are trying to understand: digital hoarding.
Are you worried that you have too much stored on your devices? Here’s how to ease the digital clutter and know when you might be showing signs of a disorder, according to experts.
If you find yourself having to wade through thousands of photos or files to find what you need, or if you experience less concentration and mental energy than usual, it could be a sign that you have too much digital clutter, Albers said.
“Digital clutter is just as stressful as real clutter in our physical world,” she says. “Our brains really tend to prefer clarity and simplicity over chaos, and that’s what it can feel like when you have a million tabs open.”
Digital clutter can also be seen as a constant stream of notifications, which can take away from your focus and slow down your concentration, she added.
You may want to preserve memories through photos or keep unnecessary documents and files from college courses or old jobs just in case. But sometimes, when the behavior changes to storing large amounts of information, it can be considered hoarding, said Dr. Emanuel Maidenberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
“It becomes a habit motivated by fear, and then it becomes challenging and difficult. It has to do with the fear of needing this information at some point in the future, but not having access to it and not knowing where to find it,” said Maidenberg, who is also director of the UCLA Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Clinic.
Digital hoarding disorder will be fueled by a persistent urge to retain digital information, rather than a “preference” to store more flexibly, he added.
It’s estimated that about 3% to 5% of the world’s population — about 8 million to 12 million people in the United States — suffer from hoarding disorder, said Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, a psychiatrist and director of clinical and research affairs at Boston University. established International OCD Foundation.
Hoarding is believed to be linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a 2019 study surveying hundreds of adults in Britain found that this behavior is common in the workplace. A 2020 follow-up study found four different types of digital hoarding: those who are organized, those who are disorganized, those who keep the digital information on behalf of their company, and those who keep it away from strong emotional ties and often worry about it. losing it.
Storing digital clutter that turns into a disorder depends on the individual, but a key factor is when it causes significant distress or impairment in daily functioning, Saxena added.
How can you tell if you are dealing with digital hoarding? If the clutter takes up so much space on your devices that you can’t store other things you need, or if wading through the clutter “takes time away from other necessary activities or social activities, or disrupts (your) life in a other way,” it could be a sign of over-acquisition of digital material, Saxena said.
“Decluttering is like a magic wand for your mental health,” says Albers. For those who have trouble decluttering, she recommends spending a few minutes every morning on a digital audit, deleting emails and other notifications that aren’t necessary. Spending a few minutes cleaning up before work “sets the stage for the rest of your day to be much more productive.”
Here are some other tips to reduce digital clutter and how it affects your day, according to Albers:
1. Turn off non-essential notifications and unsubscribe from ads clogging your emails. “They are almost mental mosquitoes. They are always moving,” Albers said. By limiting the number of notifications, you limit their ability to divert your attention when you need it.
2. Set boundaries: Minimize the amount of time you spend checking your emails and social media notifications and use your device’s mute and do-not-disturb functions for other times. Additionally, limiting the number of accounts you follow on social media can reduce clutter on your feed and reduce the amount of time you spend mindlessly scrolling, she added.
3. Take a digital detox day, or at least a time when you’re disconnected from your digital world, which will help you feel less overwhelmed by the clutter and constant notifications, she said. Having a plan for tackling digital clutter and making a commitment to declutter a little every day, or not store more than necessary, can help those who may be suffering from digital hoarding, Maidenberg said.
If you notice that this is bothering you at school or work (for example, when you turn in assignments late), if you have trouble sleeping at night because you are overwhelmed or because you feel disconnected from relationships, these could be signs are experiencing significant problems and it may be time to see a mental health professional, Albers said.
“We’re all dealing with more digital clutter than we think,” she added, “and I think (tidying up) is a simple way, if we put a little time into it, that has big benefits in terms of our productivity and just overall happiness.”