We run a tight ship around here. We reuse, repair, recycle. We take stuff to that place where you drop off electrical cords you will never ever use. Pots of paints we didn't empty. We lend books, and expect them never to return.
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But there is just one thing I can't sort. I just can't. And that's the photos in my phone. Also the photos in the drawer. That has not been opened since my last kid's formal photos were developed - say 2008. Also, the endless photos I never had developed because I didn't know what they were back then - believe me, the realisation hasn't come back to me in the last 17 years either.
It was a complete joy to me when phones started being accompanied by cameras. That was about 1999 - but I didn't catch up until the first iPhone. There was a brief crossover period. I had the mobile, I had the film camera but also had one of those digital cameras which used up memory cards like no tomorrow. I don't think I ever printed out any of those images though. And who knows where those memory cards are now. Not me.
Which brings me to my phone. As of Wednesday, I have 99,682 photos. Fenella Souter wrote a beautiful piece earlier this year where she talked about "delete anxiety".
For me, it's more than that. My really soppy secret is that of those nearly 100,000 images, the vast, vast - vast - majority are of ... my grandchildren (and some of kookaburras). To the casual observer, number one grandson might not look like his expression has changed from one photo to the next. But you are not his grandmother! I can tell one crinkled eye from the next, one scrunched expression revealing distaste for my excellent mashed potato. I need to have them all. Second grandson has miraculous dimples which come in all shapes and sizes depending on his mood. Happy dimples. Grumpy dimples. I want more ice-cream dimples. First granddaughter laughs and laughs - so I need all those. Second granddaughter is at the planking stage. Do I delete the one where she is nearly up on all her extremities, the one where she breaks her plank, or the one where she is straight as a board, remarkable for a six-month-old? Very advanced.
My very favourite photos are when the four of them are together, the smallest one propped on the biggest one, the other two nestled, like four little darling wedge-tailed eagles in a nest.
Collectively, these four and their range of expressions are the most brilliant antidote to the chaotic world order. While the rest of the world is doomscrolling, I can take time out and joyscroll. I don't need to curate! My phone knows me so well that I can just search for the names of each of my grandkids and up they pop, from day one onwards. The best photo album I've ever had. Should I print them out? Probably? Will I print them out? Oh god, then I'd really have to choose.
Mind you, I just discovered you can find all your screenshots in one folder. What is the point of me keeping 400+ images of the screen of my phone when I didn't even know I'd done that? Plus, I always seem to be taking screenshots of the weather app. And the compass. It looks like I have no idea where I am.
It turns out that looking back on these photos increases positive emotions. Three years ago, two Japanese researchers asked the people they were researching to pick photos which brought feelings of pleasure and relaxation. It was a complicated piece of research but yes, users who looked at their happy places, their happy faces, felt better than those who didn't look at their happy places.
Some people are busily reading misery before they go to sleep, not me. These kids have nothing but fits of giggles.
My boss tells me that he finds both deleting and managing photos on phones far more stressful than iPhones ads would have him believe. My advice to him? Don't bother. The only real challenge is having a phone big enough to store them all - and there's one way to fix that. Buy a phone with more memory. The cost is absolutely worth it.
Jenna Price is a guest Echidna and a regular columnist.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you delete photos? Do you edit them? Do you ever print them out? And do you have delete anxiety?
Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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THEY SAID IT: "One of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory-prompt, and because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our memories to the good." - Gretchen Rubin
YOU SAID IT: John asked if the world relies too heavily on US-based cloud computing services, in light of the AWS outages? Have you been affected by recent web outages? Are we too reliant on technology?
Mark has a gloomy view: "Optus, Qantas and so on are just not up to the task of internal checks or cybersecurity. Our politicians and consultants do not know how to deal with this. Identity theft is rife. Credit card fraud is rife. And AI only makes these problems increase and much harder to deal with. Maybe this is the new norm - wars fought by drones and hackers." Graeme is even bleaker: "Too much time spent in the morgue, of the living death, of keystroking, scrolling and face in the monitor."
Sue says we choose to use the cloud, and other technology. "But how many of us understand how it works, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it affects other aspects of our society such as its use of resources?"
Maggie agrees: "We are in a fragile position, relying on the goodwill of a few entitled white men."
And Michael has developed a couple of new acronyms. "CLOUD = Complete Loss Of User Data, then Complete Loss Of User Dollars."
