Is there such a thing as the opposite of a data hoarder? - eviltoast

I tend to either act as a data hoarder, but most of the time end up being overwhelmed with anxiety about having so much data. Even when I just look at my personal photos, I just feel impeding doom knowing it can only grow and grow, it will never get smaller.

I was wondering if this had a term.

And coming from this question, I am just amazed by this community. What has prompted your interest in data hoarding?

  • sohailoo@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Yes, that would be my friend. The dude HATE having anything on his PC. When I say hate I mean HATE, it’s so bad to the point where he has a portable version of vlc on his google drive that he downloads every time he wants to watch something and then delete it afterwards. It’s portable for fuck’s sake just leave it.

  • AlpineGuy@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Well my girlfriend not only deletes every email and empties the trash in her mailbox daily, she also throws away every piece of paper she receives. This has often led to problems (e.g. wanted to check and see if email again or needed a receipt to exchange something). However she says that those inconveniences are better than having to store all the stuff.

    My motivation? I guess deep down a fear of loss, buy also just the good feeling of having stuff ready in case I need it one day.

  • totesmcdoodle@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Most people.

    Most people never back up and they prefer the convenience of streaming subscriptions to actually owning anything.

  • AdventurousHunter575@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Netflixer?

    …but I’d rather call them idiots: Usually those people are just too dumb to backup anything themselves (with very few exceptions).

  • CuckooKakamora@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I knew a guy that reformatted his hard drive and reinstalled pretty much every month. He said it kept his machine optimized.

  • Laskonova@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    TBH I am a weird mix. I back up the things I really really care about, then delete a ton of other things to conserve as much storage as possible. I regularly go through emails and delete anything that isn’t a newsletter I want to read or that I might need in the future, and move the ones I keep to different folders. I regularly check to makd sure photos on my device are only the ones I truely need/like. I go through the documents I download, and start deleting useless trash and then highly organizing the stuff I keep in folders. So I have like 58 GB of just Ebooks and audiobooks (The ebooks and audiobooks are mostly Project Gutenberg and Librivox ones, but I do buy a few modern Audibook CDs every so often and put them on there, and Google Play Books makes it easy to buy and download no DRM free ebooks) and then like 10 GB of music from CDs, digital marketplaces like Amazon Music, and Bandcamp, etc. But then I also don’t really have many pictures or videos on my phone at all. I just hate the idea of buying things or spending money on them, and not owning them for real.

  • Key_Mammoth7084@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    my friend, there is only one alternative, that is going off grid, pulling the plug of that damn fiber connection

    it’s not a good idea to completely stay offline, but the opposite of a data hoarder is a normal person who is not concerned about data flow, where it comes, goes and the methods of storage. this is extremely unhealthy, and if you’re already experiencing anxiety, it’s the final phase before you suffer a mental break down

    the trick with anxiety is that if your brain gets used to it, it’s always there and you will always suffer from it. psychiatrists are training people the opposite way with antidepressants, they get the brain used to not caring and less anxiety, a bit sedated and relaxed, and the brain goes automatic

  • SuperElephantX@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Yep, I had a friend that matched exactly as the opposite of a data hoarder.
    I asked him why would he behaves that way, not even saving the photos to hard drives when he switched to new phones. He said he hate his past, and there’s nothing to look behind from present time. He had only few of his sport car’s photos, few of his cat’s photos, not much photos even moments with his girl friend. At the age of mid 20s, he has at most 1GB of his valuable data to keep.

    • vsae@alien.topB
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      10 months ago

      And Here I am with 18 TB of selected out photo video storage… And that’s just personal…

      • SuperElephantX@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        I find those “unselected” photo videos be also important for memories. You might want to just archive the “unselected” ones and open it like a treasure box 10 years later. You might find it valuable and glad you did not delete those 10 years later. Just my 2 cents of opinion haha

    • humanclock@alien.topB
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, I once knew a woman who deleted her emails after reading them, back when it was more popular pre social media.

      • Key_Mammoth7084@alien.topB
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        10 months ago

        you should delete all your mails today

        it’s one of many methods they profile you online

        google is just another department of cia