Digital storage space is ever expanding

"This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there. That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff." - George Carlin

I'm amazed at the exponential increase in digital storage capacity. 

Recently, while sorting through another type of storage — a storage unit — I came across my old SyQuest disk. I bought it for a desktop publishing class in the mid-90s, and I used it to save flyers and other print material I designed. The disk is a removable hard disk that measures more than five square inches — huge by today’s standards. Despite its size, however, it holds a mere 44MG, or megabytes. It was the largest storage unit I had at the time, and it felt like technological marvel. ​​

A 44MB SyQuest removable hard disk.

Now, I carry a 1GB, or gigabyte, flash drive in my backpack for whatever smaller miscellaneous items I might want to upload/download — scanned images, documents, photos, etc. I also have a 500MB external hard drive that mostly contains image files. And then I own a 2TB, or terabyte, external hard drive, which I use mainly for video projects. I was curious as far as the size difference between the storage media I use now vs. then, so I asked my friend, a math teacher, to do the calculations.

Given that... 
- 1,000K = 1MB
- 1,000MB = 1GB
- 1,000GB = 1TB

Therefore...
- My 1GB flash drive is about 23 times(x) the size of my 44MB SyQuest disk
- My 500GB external hard drive is 11,500 x the SyQuest

And... Get this!
- My 2TB external hard drive is 46,000 x the SyQuest!

What does this enormous increase mean in the larger social context? I wasn’t sure, so I asked another friend. Her blunt assessment: we’re a culture that likes to accumulate “stuff” and all this space encourages us to acquire more “stuff.” She mentioned, as an example, she’s saved every paper she ever wrote in college. She admitted she doesn’t need to hold onto the documents, and she hasn’t read any since she was in school.

Personally, I take hundreds of digital photos whenever I go on a trip. I store the photos on the 500MB hard drive I mentioned, but rarely look at any after I return. A lot of the images aren’t even that great. For some reason, the ordinary – trees, rocks, squirrels – seem special when you're away from home. 
 
And then there’s my music collection. I’ve downloaded hundreds of songs over the years. I’ll hear a song playing in a store while I’m shopping or on the radio while I’m driving, and I’ll acquire the track soon after. More often than not, I’ll listen to it once or twice before losing interest. I'll keep the track, however, in the off chance I might need it. 
 
So, why do we keep all this digital material? What compels us to hold onto so much, as my friend calls it, “stuff?” The answer is simple: because we can. The technology is available and we gladly use it.

On a final note, I'm reminded of an old Doritos commercial. The tagline went: “Crunch all you want, we’ll make more.” Well, the slogan could now be amended by Brand X to advertise their digital depository devices:  “STORE all you want, we’ll ADD more.”