Just realized I hit 500 unread emails this morning and felt weirdly proud

So I was clearing out my inbox before class and saw the counter hit 500 unread. I honestly thought I'd be embarrassed but instead I felt like I'd unlocked some kind of achievement lol. Some people freak out at 50 unread but for me it's like a badge of not being glued to email all day. Is this a bad take or am I onto something with this digital clutter mindset? Has anyone else hit a random number like this and had double feelings about it?

3 comments

3 Comments

murray.robert6d ago

Hitting exactly 500 is kind of satisfying though, isn't it? But I gotta ask - how many of those emails are actually important versus just spam or newsletters you forgot to unsubscribe from? Because I feel like there's a difference between digital clutter from stuff you signed up for and legit emails you're avoiding. Once I hit 600 unread and realized 400 of them were coupon alerts and store promos I never even open (oops). Made me wonder if the pride is really about being unbothered or just being lazy with the unsubscribe button.

phoenix_martin406d ago

Oh man, you just called me out and I'm not even mad... it's so true that half the battle is just being too lazy to unsubscribe. I've got 200+ unread from that one clothing brand I bought a single hoodie from three years ago and I keep telling myself "I'll clean it out next week" but next week never comes. The legit emails I'm avoiding are probably like 30 of them total - bills I know are due, a message from my landlord I don't wanna read, that one thread with my cousin about family drama. The rest is pure junk I've trained my brain to ignore entirely. It's like digital hoarding but with the extra step of pretending I'm too busy to fix it...

brookeellis6d ago

Honestly those 30 legit ones are probably why we keep putting it off tbh. The junk ones are easy to ignore but seeing the real stuff just makes us wanna close the browser tab.