Decreasing Digital Dependence

I don't consider myself to be a Luddite. I've embraced the thoughtful, critical use of technology for a long time. Online tools can be a time-saver and quite helpful in the right place at the right time. Lately, I've been a bit cranky about how much I rely on these devices, and I'm trying to reduce my reliance. Here are a few examples.

AI Mining My Drive and Email

I liked having the ability to "turn off" AI when I didn't want to use it. A few years ago, I could type "-AI" as part of my search terms, and the results would not include AI-generated summaries or answers. I tried this tip and it no longer works. Not only that, I really began to dislike how frequently both my Hotmail (Microsoft) and my Gmail (Google) push the use of their proprietary AI bots (Microsoft CoPilot and Google Gemini). This post I saw on Facebook (and yes, I know many Facebook posts are AI fabrications) convinced me that I needed to take more drastic measures.

I asked my daughter (a Gen Z aged adult) about this. She has turned off the "smart features and personalization" feature and had limited her inbox to under 100 emails. I want to be like my daughter!

When I first tried this, I was intimidated and scared by the result. I'm usually on top of reading all my emails in my personal Gmail account, but when I turned off this feature, all of a sudden it reported that I had 15 000 unread emails. It's all the items that used to be hidden or removed from my primary email to the promotions or socials folders. (The irony was that some of these emails were "sponsored"; I can't even blame myself for signing up for these messages!)

After some stern self talk, I made the commitment to turn it off. I spent a good chunk of time on the weekend using the is:unread search tactic and systematically deleting all of these unread spam messages. 

Even my school email needed some maintenance. I was tired of seeing my warnings saying I had little-to-no storage space left. I downloaded and removed all super-large video files, but a surprisingly simple solution was for me to use the search term older_than:4y and move items to the trash. There is a chance that I might lose an important email from the past, but the likelihood that I will need an email from 2022 is low.

Online Translation Apps

I am an ESL teacher as well as a teacher-librarian and guidance teacher-counselor. Many of the students I service this year have almost no English oral skills. Some of the students have watches that will do translations for them. I myself occasionally pull out my phone to use one of several online translation tools to help me communicate. It's convenient when we struggle to explain ourselves to each other. I use apps like Google Translate, Translate, and Translator.

This can be handy, but more often than not, when we speak and see the results in English, we are disappointed with the accuracy. 

"That's not what I meant."

"That's not what I said."

This is why we are hiring an in-person translator to help me with the orientation interviews I'll need to conduct as part of my ESL students' initial assessments. We don't have as much money in the budget as we did in the past, but for peace of mind, it's money worth spending.

The other problem with using translation apps is that it's easier to write in your home language. My ESL students would prefer to write in Mandarin. Some of them are fluent writers in Mandarin and can compose descriptive paragraphs in ways that are currently beyond their ability in English. It's my job to help them develop these reading and writing skills, but it can be difficult when the translating tool will do the hard parts for them. 

FSL students have similar problems. Inputting your English paragraph and receiving what appears to be a properly conjugated French equivalent. They aren't proficient enough to determine if the translation is accurate, and won't become proficient if they offload the task to a translator to write in French.

Next week (October 26-30, 2026)  is Media Literacy Week, as well as Canadian School Library Day (October 26, 2026). 

On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, I will be giving a presentation called "Navigating Online Content for Older Adults" online with the Ottawa Public Library. Hopefully my presentation will recapture some of the shining joy online environments can provide as well as illustrate some of the drawbacks.