In addition to being really bad at details, I am like the least computer-savvy excuse for a “computer person.”
Side note: I’ll write a post about my strengths someday, I swear. Although I suppose that would make for less interesting blog fodder. (“I was really awesome at this thing and it went smoothly, the end.”)
So anyway, yes, technically I’m a web designer and can have intelligent conversations about content management systems, and server technologies and blah blah blah.
But when my computer throws a “scratch disc full” error at me I want to rend garments in frustration.
I might as well just confess right here that each time I have gotten a new computer for the past decade I just copied everything over. No archive, no backup system. Zero sense of organization whatsoever. Folders within folders, each successive one labeled “_new.”
So since my computer literally refused to save anything more, I was forced to sort through my hard drive this past week. Slowly uncovering layers upon layers of used up memory.
(Yeah, it’s a metaphor. I see that now. I seriously didn’t until I sat down to write this post though. Oh how I crack myself up.)
How Memory Works
If you watch a digital movie, you’re more or less in that moment again.
If you open an IM transcript, you’re in that conversation again.
And the thing is, in the year 2010, a lot of “old” stuff is preserved this way. In almost too rich detail.
Backup
While I (sort of) accept my past and everything that got me to where I am today (yawn), I don’t exactly want to re-live it. So much of it was so pointlessly painful.
It’s like this really depressing artsy movie that has a great “message.”
I learned a lot from it, my life is better for it, but I sure as hell don’t need to rewind and watch it again.
At the same time I felt this burden, like how can I erase part of the past? As if there were some sort of archival integrity I would be disrupting by clearing this stuff out.
Anyway, here’s what I did.
I archived a sampling. (Pretty much anything where I look pretty or sound clever.) But mostly, I deleted it.
I need that space for new stuff.
But I’m curious…
What do you do with it?
I mean, the stuff that’s old enough to capture a moment in time that’s no longer current, but maybe isn’t the happiest memory.
Do you keep it all?
Or do you have some rules about what you keep and what you don’t?
Oh, and if you do keep it–do you ever look at it again?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Funny how this topic has come up a lot this week all over the place.
I’m a tosser. I bookmark stuff to look at under just favorites so I know it’s new stuff that I want to take a look at. I give myself a week to do that. If I go back and can’t figure out why I saved it, delete. If I can figure it out, then it might get filed under Fave Blogs, or copy and pasted into a folder for sort of stuff. I go through favorites once every month and delete a lot. If I haven’t looked at it in three or four months it’s outta there.
Now about the folders…I save my articles, books to cd’s to be safe. Two copies. lol I save correspondance and when it’s up to six months worth, save it to cd and delete the old one. I’ll add the next six months worth to the original word doc then delete that one. (yeah, dated and such) So mostly my system is to save only meaningful stuff to cd’s the rest can be deleted. I’m mostly not a saver though…think that’s a habit from being a foster child where I got used to not being able to keep things so I’m careful to make what I do save very small and portable. lol (I keep a tote with my cd’s that I can grab with my purse in case of a fire, for instance.)
This year I’ve gotten into photography…that’s a new one. I haven’t got a system for that yet so if my drive blows up…it’s gone. Guess I better figure something out on that one, eh?
Wulfie´s last blog ..Eff Purpose and the Horse it Rode in on
Twitter: AmberStrocel
February 5, 2010 at 8:35 pm
I am an electrical engineer and I worked for years as a programmer, and I am also highly computer un-savvy. Also, I swear a lot whenever I need to do anything technical with a website. It is maybe not so charming.
As for the archiving, I keep all the photos. All. Of. Them, including the ones my kid took of the printer or the carpet. I also keep home movies and so on. But I delete emails and old files unrepentantly. I like the idea of a ‘clean’ computer, and so my bias is to scrap stuff, even stuff I might want to use again.
The stuff I do keep, the photos and the movies, I do look at again. I like re-living my kids’ babyhood, for instance. So I don’t feel that bad about holding on to this piece of digital history.
Amber´s last blog ..Kindergarten Registration
Twitter: elizabethhalt
February 5, 2010 at 10:17 pm
You caught me in the middle of a rare “I must clean up my bookmarks. What on earth is this one. Why would I save it. Wait – what if I had a reason and I delete it and it’s gone forever.” occurrence. I am a saver. However, I am finding that if I go back to my photos a few years later, I am much more merciless about tossing. I have to upgrade my computer in a month or two, so I figured I may as well do some of this stuff now. And I do look at photos again. Often. Aside from bookmarks and photos, I don’t really have “stuff” on my computer. (Don’t ask about my work computer; that’s a whole ‘nother story.)
Ha. I have a degree in Computer Science and have spent almost 10 years working with computers and am still very computer-unsavvy. If I get an error message, I panic and stop whatever it is that I’m doing. I do not like computer issues and am always afraid I will do something wrong and kill my computer.
elizabeth´s last blog ..for josiane
Twitter: chrisdivalish
February 6, 2010 at 1:31 pm
I, too, am a computer professional that doesn’t grok computers. I use them as tools ONLY. The technology itself doesn’t interest me at all so I just want it to be easy to understand and to work right the first time. When it does, I’m happy; when it doesn’t, I throw things… and swear a lot.
Re: keeping stuff, I keep a lot of digital stuff on my computer – music, audiobooks and courses, interesting .pdfs. Much of it is stuff that other people thought I’d be interested in, that I’ve never even looked at. I tell myself I’ll get around to looking at it one day but it rarely happens. Whenever I think about dragging it to the Trash, I feel a little guilty because the person who sent it thought I’d like it enough to take the time to send it… etc. So it’s still taking up space on my hard drive ….
I have a hard time sorting my inbox (which dates from September 2008 now) out nevermind all the other rubbish I have stored on my PC. But it’s not just the PC for me, I have issues with getting rid of clothes or anything else that “might come in useful” or reminds me of something. I keep watching Hoarders and relishing the space I do create when I get rid of useless things and try and keep myself on track with both the digital and physical declutterings I am trying to exercise in my world.
Twitter: casey_cole
March 28, 2010 at 1:03 pm
I have had several computers over the past few years.
Work ones. Home ones. Test-case ones.
Work ones? I backup anything remotely personal on a DVD. Store those DVDs in a place near or related to other DVDs of the same ilk.
Home ones? DVDs and external hard drives. I think I have at least three external hard drives of various sizes. Lord knows how many DVDs. The DVDs live near the other “backups” of the work stuff.
Basically, I’m a backup fanatic.
But I rarely go back there to look at them. I’m not even sure where the backup DVDs are right now. Not even the ones from last month.
But I like knowing that those saved moments in time are there. Like boxes of photos from 15 years ago. Scraps of paper in one of my ancient steamer trunks. Things from before digital was possible.
When I do occasionally find and look at these things (instead of simply grouping them or filing them away in more boxes), I am always amazed by what was important. How far I’ve come. Where I’ve been. I mean, wow! I’ve had adventures. I was violently passionate about things that have no meaning to today-me.
It’s kinda cool.
Twitter: lookatthathair
June 22, 2010 at 5:50 am
Hello! I found your site last night and am working my way through. This entry really grabbed me.
Several years ago I had a blog. It quickly got quite a following among other people going through the same situation I was experiencing. However, after two and a half years I realized I had to stop it, because I was devoting so much time to reliving the awful things that had happened (even when they kept happening in real life). It was a sweet sorrow, in a way, and as much as I wanted to move beyond it it had defined who I was.
So I deleted the blog cold turkey one day—at least from the site. I put all the entries into a single page (a couple of reams’ worth, I believe) and saved it as an HTML file. For the sake of computer memory I lost all the photos and comments. Every now and then, however, I’ll recall something and so I’ll open the file and look back. Two things strike me: how crazy and sad and desperate things were, and how beautiful the writing was—from the soul. A third thing that hangs over it is how much I edited myself to omit the truly exacerbating detail of family, who I feared above all finding my blog. I say ‘exacerbating’ because with their support, I think I would have fared a lot better; however, empathy is not part of their makeup…
Since then things have improved significantly—that’s a story for another day—but the most rewarding part of my experience is that I’ve come to know many other survivors from all walks of life. I wouldn’t delete them for anything.
I must add that what I was experiencing wasn’t pointlessly painful, because it was something beyond my control and also it made me who I am and who my daughter will be.
So, that’s my long answer to a short question. When you can’t take it anymore, you remove it. You’ll know which ones to destroy and which to put away for a time when you can handle it. The rest won’t matter.