Depends on the Operating System.

Windows, sure, it’s a memory hog. That’s why the little 4GB $200 laptops you see at Walmart and Target barely load a 2nd screen when you play with them. They’re all running windows.

As far as the SSD, the more and more files you add to them, naturally they decrease in performance. This goes for both the memory of the OS and the SSD. SSD’s are what you’d find in most modern high-end laptops. And probably what you have in yours by the sound of it.

I’d recommend (if you are using windows?) running the ‘Disk Cleanup’ tool. Often times Windows stores old unneeded update files that can be deleted to save Gigabytes of space.

After that, iTunes for windows (As does Mac I’m assuming) has an ‘Encrypt Backup’ option where it would only store all of your files pictures whatnot securely and locally. And if you wanted to even take a step further, you could encrypt your entire laptop drive. So as the backup would be nearly impossible to get at unless knowing the password(s). But of course the 2nd option is purely optional and to be honest quite the effort.

Hope this clears things up.