The Digital Graveyard

Cleaning up the clutter

The house could do with a good clean, but it's the digital world that has my attention at the moment. Since we acquired our first computer in 1985, developments have been rapid. Accounts long forgotten lurk in a kind of digital graveyard, and I've decided it's time to lay several to rest. Over the years I was an early adopter of many sites and apps, each promised something useful. Those accounts largely free, had their uses but their moment is now long past.

Do you honestly know how many accounts you have accumulated over the years on sites that no longer exist? If you have a password manager you may be surprised what's still lurking therein. I found three saved passwords for sites that had vanished entirely. Then there were the others, one account now occupied by a casino, and another quietly taken over by a more respectable firm.

I was reminded of an earlier digital life today when I logged back into a long forgotten SlideShare account. I had not used it for 12 years but it still held a range of presentations I had uploaded and shared.  I took a screenshot to mark the occasion, then deleted the content and the account.

As I grow older I feel a growing responsibility to leave behind only what will genuinely be useful for my descendants. The digital world is cluttered enough without my adding to it indefinitely. I'm working to clean up my corner.

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info