Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a couple of opposing trends developing about how people create, maintain, and interact with their records and information. Trend #1 – People are becoming increasingly interested in documenting everything, especially if the data creation & collection happens automatically. For example many people wear devices such as cameras and fit bands that will record things for you. Other people are really interested in the internet of things and having inanimate objects such as fridges and thermostats, connected, collecting and analyzing data at all times.
#2 – People are becoming more hesitant about destroying (or deleting) the content created from all this data collection. Many apps play along with this hesitation by making deletion difficult (e.g. offering unlimited “archives”, removing links to content, but not the actual content, and making the delete option challenging to find).
It’s a hard thing to reconcile. It can be difficult in the workplace to advocate for the benefits of properly applied retention and disposition when I have to contend with the two trends mentioned above and the illusion of cheap data storage.
Ever since we’ve become more reliant on digital formats, people have also become more hesitant to get rid of things. Is it because digital storage seems cheaper and we can save more? Is it because it’s often faster to search for digital items? Is it because it’s easier to create and amass a large volume of digital stuff?
I think people have lost the confidence necessary to safely and strategically destroy information that no longer brings them value for a number of reasons. We produce a large volume of digital records in many varied formats. This makes it challenging to keep track of them all. We might miss something if we purge too soon. Records are created and received instantly which means our brains need to process everything faster. It can be hard to keep up with so many competing priorities.
With so much emphasis on electronic formats, I thought my days of dealing with bankers boxes were over. I was mistaken. Sometimes I am hired specifically to deal with paper. Most of the time it’s for storage units filled with boxes, but in some cases, the paper is still being actively created and used.
Often clients will quickly recommend that “we just digitize everything” and get rid of the paper. Incidentally this is often how many clients respond to the suggestion of a retention policy. I use this an opportunity to educate users that a retention policy would apply equally to both physical and electronic formats. If all the paper is digitized before destruction then nothing has been destroyed. Either way, most people seem to fear deletion (and destruction).
Is it less risky to save everything “just in case” even if you don’t know what you have or to destroy things, but in a controlled way with a proper procedure, and risk needing something in the future? I think most users who advocate to save everything aren’t aware of the costs associated with maintaining enormous volumes of content in a way that would actually make it beneficial for them to do so. If you’re not going to invest to maintain and manage information properly, what makes it worth the investment to save it all?