the digital hermit project

There is a scene in the movie Hurt Locker, where Jeremy Renner's character, Seargeant William James discovers an improvised explosive device in a Baghdad road. He locates a wire and begins tracing it to it's destination, brushing away dirt until he exposes the tip of a buried mortar shell. Sgt. James then retraces the wire in an effort to locate a power source. In doing so, he finds a connection with more wires. With dramatic effort he pulls up on the junction of the wires as an additional four mortar shells emerge from the dirt in the road. A bit dramatic, but I recalled this scene during my recent efforts to identify and delete online accounts. As I work to uncover and gain access to one, I find another two or three that I have forgotten about. They seem to be popping up everywhere. In the past, I've mentioned that I have struggled with a "new technology addiction." This has resulted in a massive digital footprint with accounts (and forgotten passwords) scattered all over the place.…