Digital Stacking

Digital Hoarding is defined as a condition in which individuals continuously acquire digital content such as emails, digital images, videos, electronic documents, and software, experience significant difficulty in deleting or organizing these contents, and suffer stress or psychological distress due to the accumulation of data creating an unmanageable disorder. This phenomenon, also referred to in the literature as "e-hoarding," "data hoarding," or "cyber hoarding," is regarded as the digital manifestation of physical hoarding disorder (disposophobia) in the context of technological advancements.

^{Comparative Visual of Physical Stacking and Digital Stacking (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}

Digital hoarding exhibits parallels with the "hoarding disorder" diagnostic criteria outlined by the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 in terms of its psychological and behavioral foundations. The theoretical underpinning of the concept draws on Freud's "anal triad" linking orderliness, frugality, and obstinacy, as well as modern cognitive-behavioral models. One of the key theories used to explain digital hoarding is attachment theory, which posits that individuals form intense emotional bonds with digital content such as photographs and messages, treating these items as security objects, so that their deletion evokes grief-like emotional responses.

^{Theoretical Framework Diagram Showing the Relationship Between Agent, Content, and Domain (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}

To explain the dynamics between traditional hoarding and digital hoarding, the "Hoarder-Content-Space" framework has been developed. According to this framework, the fundamental differences between digital hoarding and physical hoarding are as follows:

• Expandability of Space: While physical space is limited, digital storage capacity (cloud systems, external drives) can be continuously expanded at low cost.
• Invisibility: While physical clutter restricts living space, digital accumulations remain hidden in virtual environments and are typically only noticed when devices slow down or crash.
• Ease of Acquisition: Copying, downloading, or generating digital content requires significantly less effort and cost compared to acquiring physical objects.

Digital hoarding consists of three main sub-dimensions:

• Constant Acquisition: The tendency of individuals to continuously download, save, or produce new digital content even when they have no immediate need for it. Social media data, free e-books, and applications fall into this category.
• Discarding Difficulty: The intense resistance and anxiety experienced by individuals in deleting unnecessary files due to the emotional or instrumental value they attribute to digital data.
• Clutter Propensity: The tendency to accumulate files in a disorganized manner without proper categorization, making it difficult to locate desired data.

^{Character Cards Representing Four Distinct Digital Stacker Types Defined in the Literature (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}

Researchers have categorized digital hoarders into four main types based on behavioral patterns:

• Collector: Individuals who systematically and controllably gather data.
• Accidental Hoarder: Individuals who do not organize their data, are unaware of what they possess, and have lost control over their digital collections.
• Hoarder by Instruction: Individuals who are required to retain data due to institutional or occupational obligations.
• Anxious Hoarder: Individuals who form strong emotional attachments to their data and experience fear at the thought of deletion.

Factors driving individuals toward digital hoarding are classified as technological, psychological, and instrumental.

^{Cyclic Flow Diagram of Digital Hoarding Behavior and Psychological Processes (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}

The near-zero cost of data storage (hard drives, cloud subscriptions) and the perception of "nearly unlimited" storage capacity have eliminated the necessity for individuals to be selective in their data retention.

The belief that data may hold potential future value, leading to its retention out of a "better safe than sorry" mindset, is one of the most common motivations.

Photographs and messages are perceived as extensions of individuals' pasts and identities. Deleting these data is experienced as losing a part of one's history or having one's life taken away.

Sorting and organizing accumulated data—for example, deleting thousands of emails—requires substantial time and cognitive effort, leading individuals to avoid the task and prefer retaining the data instead.

Research conducted among young people aged 18 to 21 in Türkiye has revealed that digital hoarding is particularly prevalent among the younger generation, referred to as "digital natives", and exhibits certain cultural-specific characteristics. Digital natives may experience difficulties in accumulating, storing, and managing digital data.

In a study by Çiğdem Berber Çelik and Feridun Kaya (2023), the "Digital Hoarding Scale" was adapted to Turkish culture. With a sample of 544 participants, the scale's two-dimensional structure—"discarding difficulty" and "accumulation"—was confirmed in the Turkish population. The findings demonstrated significant positive relationships between digital hoarding and obsessive-compulsive symptoms and persistent anxiety.^【2】 

• In a focus group study with students from Aksaray University, participants were found to accumulate thousands of files on their mobile phones and email accounts, often unable to recall their contents, yet exhibiting extreme emotional reactions—such as feelings of "annihilation" or "emptiness"—at the thought of deletion.^【3】
• In a study with 30 participants, 93.3% were found to prefer digital storage over physical storage.^【4】 This study drew parallels between digital hoarding and the Japanese concept of "Tsundoku" (the habit of accumulating books without reading them); it was also found that behaviors related to accumulating digital games, articles, and e-books varied by age group—young people tended to accumulate games, while adults accumulated e-books and articles.

Digital hoarding leads to various negative outcomes at both individual and organizational levels:

• Individual and Psychological Effects: Digital hoarding increases anxiety levels in individuals. A study involving 846 participants demonstrated a strong positive relationship between digital hoarding and anxiety $(R^2=0.37)$, showing that as digital hoarding increases, so does anxiety. Additionally, excessive information load leads to concentration difficulties and reduced productivity.^【5】

In organizational contexts, digital hoarding increases cybersecurity risks. Storing unnecessary data expands the volume of sensitive information vulnerable to breaches and creates legal compliance issues (e.g., KVKK/GDPR). Furthermore, the storage of trillions of redundant files on cloud servers increases energy consumption in data centers, generating a significant carbon footprint and contributing to environmental harm.

^{Comprehensive Statistical Dashboard Showing Individual Data Storage Quantities, Digital Preference Rates, and Their Relationship to Anxiety (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}

Research on the subject reports that the average data storage per individual is 3.7 TB, with maximum storage reaching up to 47 TB. The fact that over 300 million photos are shared daily on social media platforms such as Facebook, and that 1.7 MB of data is generated every second, illustrates the scale of the data flow fueling hoarding behaviors.^【6】