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Folders vs. Search: How Filing Has Changed in the Digital Age

By iPad Pete 7 Comments

When we were students, pen and paper still ruled even if we used computers to type our essays. As adults, we put our important paper documents into a folder and that folder went into our filing cabinets. Even though our documents are digital now, computer filing operates on that same pen and paper principle.

Technology has marched us all along but there are references to actions of the past that do not resonate for newer generations, including how to file a document on a computer. 

Professors began noticing this trend around 2017. Students would be requested to save their files in a certain location, but they had no idea how to designate or follow a file path. They hadn’t needed to before because with iPhones everything comes down to the easy accessibility of the search bar. 

We use Search for everything on our iPhones. Need to find an app? Swipe right and search. Looking for that photo from five years ago? Search photos. The digital insurance cards you saved in Documents? Search bar. 

The introduction of search on the iPhone meant you no longer had to know where something was stored to locate it; you could find it wherever it happened to be saved.

This method has been equated to storing everything in a bucket or a laundry basket. You just reach in and pull out what you need. The opposite of the traditional computer filing structure that has been used since computers began computing. 

But the bucket method isn’t ideal for some kinds of work, especially the STEM fields that deal with hundreds (if not thousands) of similar files that make proper filing a necessity. Professors now find themselves teaching an intro course on file management that they did not anticipate. 

With our iPhones being our main form of digital interaction and file sharing, the traditional “file cabinet with folders” method we use on our home computers is becoming as obsolete as the file cabinet itself. Faced with this problem of technology versus tradition, Gen Z will likely design their own ways of designating file locations that will not resemble anything we have used previously. 

While I may not be quite ready to abandon my (mostly) labeled and organized file directory, finding files within folders within folders within folders may not be the most efficient system. iPhones have once again changed our lives in an unexpected way, and it will be interesting to see how future generations update these traditional processes.

What do you think? How has saving and searching for files changed for you?

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Filed Under: Features, Tech News

Comments

  1. Donna Mickelsen says

    at

    Thanks for the info. Makes me start thinking of how I can utilize a filing system for more than my photos and emails.
    I am 83 and I love the new technology and want to learn more.

    Reply
  2. Terry says

    at

    I am a neuropsychologist. I have been using file and folder organization strategies for 40 years. I am no getting involved in digital marketing and the volume of information has completely overwhelmed my old system. Would love to read your comprehensive system for organizing information that you need to regular access.

    Reply
  3. Kathie Hagwell says

    at

    Article doesn’t say much, except to proclaim the inevitability of change. No clue as to how that change will look.

    Reply
    • Sandi says

      at

      I agree with you there.

      Reply
  4. Jana says

    at

    The digital file in file works for me. I was an office employee. So I know how to find it this way.

    Reply
  5. Robert Fish says

    at

    This really sounds interesting. I am currently using paper and digital documentation.

    Digital seems to offer the many more opportunities.

    Reply
  6. Betsy says

    at

    As a barely functioning ludite I have yet to find a system for filing my business emails. I think my problem is that I don’t have an actual computer anymore. I use my iPad for almost anything that comes up and if not the iPad then I go to my iPhone. I have found the folders where are you file things but I need to delete a lot from my old business doings and I have managed to delete the contents of folders but cannot seem to delete the actual folders. Could you do a class on that or at least explain it. Will I ever be able to delete all those files I don’t want in there and create some new ones. The only thing I came up with was to change the file name on some of the existing folders but it didn’t work on all the folders. Can you Help us learn a good way.

    Reply

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