Modern-day hoarding: A model for understanding and measuring digital hoarding

Abstract

With the cost of data storage approaching near zero, an individual can acquire, share, and store digital content (i.e., emails, images, videos, and documents) more than ever before. This behavior is exacerbated by the availability, affordability, and usability of modern technological devices like smart mobile phones, wearables, the rapid proliferation of social media and communication apps, and the intensification of digitized business and/or personal interactions. As a result, there is an increased propensity to acquire and accumulate substantial amounts of digital content. Employing the theoretical foundations of the attachment theory and the hoarding disorder, this study argues that the characteristics such as difficulty of discarding digital content, digital clutter, and frequent excessive acquisition of digital content demonstrate the signs of digital hoarding. By conducting a survey using 846 respondents and conducting a multigroup analysis, this study provides confirmatory evidence on digital hoarding and its association to anxiety. As such, this study contributes to the dark side of technology use and introduces a new concept called digital hoarding to information systems research.