3 reasons I stopped using the cloud

• When you want to truly back up pictures
• Data breach and security concerns
• You don’t want to always be online

The introduction of the cloud has been great for many reasons, and I love it for the convenience it offers. For those who don’t know, the cloud backs up many of files automatically, and it lets you access thing across many different devices. It means that game save you have on PC will work on your Xbox, provided the game supports it. The same applies to the pictures you take on your phone. For the most part, everything works, but that doesn’t mean I want to rely on it for everything. Sure, things from my phone’s camera roll being backed in the cloud are nice, but that’s mostly just pictures of my dog and cat. If there’s anything more important I want to save, I try to get that backed up to something that isn’t in the cloud.

There’s no disputing that the cloud has been a net positive, but I simply don’t trust it to keep track of everything I upload. There are still quite a few reasons to avoid using it if you can, even if it’s just for your peace of mind. For example, I’m a fan of cloud gaming because it lets me play games instantly without waiting for long downloads, and I can often get better performance since I’m not relying on my own hardware. Getting that extra bit of computing power is a big boon in some cases. However, there are areas where the cloud has limitations.

When you want to truly back up pictures

Nothing beats holding them in your hand

If you take a lot of pictures, you’re not only filling up your phone’s storage, but you’re likely filling up your cloud storage space too. Instead of relying on some mythical cloud to keep your memories safe and sound, you could put the pictures you really care about on a USB flash drive or even get them printed out. You might not realize it, but places like CVS will still print out pictures for you, and it’s not really all that expensive either.

Doing this allows you to fill up a scrapbook or give pictures away to family members as a gift, and I’m just talking about that digital scrapbook Google gives you. You can still keep these same pictures in the cloud, but it’s nice to have some physical copies just to look at each day. I have a lot of picture frames lying around for some reason, and I’ve finally started to fill some of them up with printed off pictures.

Data breach and security concerns

Can’t happen if you don’t use the cloud

This is sort of par for the course with the world becoming more and more online with each passing year, but data breaches are a real concern. If you have online accounts, there’s a decent chance you’ve already received an email at some point saying your data showed up in a breach and that you have to change your password.

This is why it’s good practice to not use the same password for everything.

You can avoid this by avoiding the cloud entirely, but that’s certainly easier said than done. I guess a better solution would be to avoid giving out deeply personal information. Linking a credit card to a bunch of sites might not be the greatest idea, although it’s something I’m guilty of. I’m not really trying to pay bills by mail, so it’s a risk I’m willing to take. If you’re worried about your information being stolen, then it might be your best option.

You don’t want to always be online

It doesn’t work without internet

So much of the world relies on having a constant internet connection, and that can be exhausting sometimes. Something I did last summer was picked up an older Kodak film camera, and it’s been quite an experience. Instead of being able to look at my pictures right after I took them to delete them if they were bad, I was now at the whim of having them developed to find out if they turned out or not. That’s the beauty of an analog world.

There’s no disputing that the cloud has been a net positive, but I simply don’t trust it to keep track of everything I upload.

The cloud needs a constant connection to the internet, and there are moments where that’s not going to happen. Rural areas tend to be prone to this, so I would hate to run into a situation where I need to show something to someone, but I’m not able to. I like to keep Google Docs or Sheets to keep track of things. I sort of treat it like a journal, but I’ve been trying to use a physical notepad just so I can open something quickly to jot something down. Small things like this, whether it’s a camera or notepad, cut back on our reliance on the cloud, and it provides similar results.