Last week I wrote a piece for Wired about Google’s promise of infinite data storage and how that expectation has turned us into digital hoarders over the past decade. I like the analogy because hoarding always implies a misuse of scarce domestic space—filling your home with unnecessary detritus that you’re unwilling to discard, and having to live on top of it as it takes over. From what little I know about hoarding, which is partially firsthand (we’re all somewhere on the spectrum), it’s never actually about having enough space. Those with the most pathological hoarding issues seem to live in bigger homes, as if a tendency to hoard is correlated with available capacity. That would make sense, because hoarding is actually a form of decision paralysis and more storage volume enables the hoarder to defer more decisions—the spatial equivalent of busy people getting things done more quickly. I cut a section from the
I am aware that this is an unpopular point of view, but I feel the same way about net neutrality. If we had to ration our consumption as we do with electricity, water etc., we wouldn’t be consuming so much thoughtless streaming video. (We could give our kids a budget) We might all be more considerate in our choices. I am in favor of a data economy the charges for Bytes. And, after all it is also linked to our planets finite resources and capacities in that way.
I am aware that this is an unpopular point of view, but I feel the same way about net neutrality. If we had to ration our consumption as we do with electricity, water etc., we wouldn’t be consuming so much thoughtless streaming video. (We could give our kids a budget) We might all be more considerate in our choices. I am in favor of a data economy the charges for Bytes. And, after all it is also linked to our planets finite resources and capacities in that way.