I have thousands of photos of my children but few that I’ve set aside to revisit. I have records of virtually every text I’ve sent since I was in college but no idea how to find the ones that meant something. I spent years blasting my thoughts to millions of people on X and Facebook even as I fell behind on correspondence with dear friends. I have ... See more

There is so much I loved in those archives. There is so much I would delight in rediscovering. But I can’t find what matters in the morass. I’ve given up on trying.

In conversation with friends, I realized that this was a common problem. My best friend’s home screen is a dizzying mass of screenshots, essays, and audio recordings for future reference. My mother’s internet browser regularly crashes because of the fifty-three tabs she keeps open at all times. My partner never deletes a photo without putting it on... See more