Digital (or Virtual) Hoarding
Jo Ann Oravec · International Journal of Computers in Clinical Practice · 2018
This article outlines hoarding issues involving virtual goods (including databases, videos, images, avatars, and digital documents) in workplaces, households, and personal contexts. It explores the implications of the growing literature on digital or virtual hoarding for psychological as well as organizational approaches to computing technology. It covers related security issues, intellectual property concerns, and matters pertaining to information flow in organizational settings, which often provide models for individuals as to how to preserve their own information-related materials. The article includes reflections about moral and personal dimensions of virtual hoarding, with emphases on information ethics and the opportunistic appropriation of organizational or household data for individual gain. It underscores the importance of education on how archiving practices can assist in dealing with digital hoarding issues. Organizations along with individuals face substantial losses through compulsions to “save” virtual goods without appropriate strategies for managing them over time.