Microprocessing
Steam Sales Are the Ultimate Trap for Digital Hoarders
It feels satisfying at first — and then things get bad
“I think I’m addicted to Steam sales.”
The sentiment, voiced by a user named PM_ME_YOUR_BREAKFAST on a subreddit devoted to the gigantic game store, is easy to empathize with. It’s easy — sometimes too easy — to amass a gigantic collection of digital goods, especially when they’re on sale. (In Steam’s case, there’s almost always at least a handful of discounted games.) The phenomenon extends beyond video games to e-books and phone apps.
“I’m usually pretty thoughtful about buying anything,” Elle Thompson, a literary assistant based in Reading, Pennsylvania, told me. “But with Kindle books… Not having to physically move it between apartments, find space in bookcases, justifying typically lower prices than physical copies? I’ll buy upwards of eight in a day.”
For some people, this annoying, costly habit can morph into an actual problem. Compulsive shopping disorder is known as a behavioral addiction, alongside similar problems like gambling or gaming addictions. The particular classification of these behaviors as actual addictions rather than problematic habits is up for debate, and compulsive shopping isn’t listed as a recognized…
