Library launches anti-big tech series

The Gloucester County Library System Mullica Hill Branch is set to offer a four-part series titled “Breaking Up With Big-Tech,” and it begins on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 3 p.m. in the computer lab.

The series will be presented by digital services librarian Paul Palmer, who has been with the library for seven years. Palmer, who is personally and professionally passionate about, and well-versed in, technology, created the series as a way to educate teens and adults, raise awareness on the issues and risks of big technology companies and offer a guide on how to start “breaking up” with these companies and services. Big-tech refers to the largest and most influential tech companies in the world, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta.

“I feel like the kind of modern landscape has gotten a little bit skewed towards big businesses or big tech, and they offer you a lot of free services,” Palmer said. “But I don’t think a lot of people realize this comes with the expense of your privacy.”

Palmer said he was inspired to offer the four-part series after attending a speech by a different librarian who discussed how librarians can empower patrons to take more control of their own data and tech usage.

“I really want to help out our community with things they maybe don’t know they can do,” he said.

The first program on Nov. 19 will be on “Avoiding AI.” Palmer will explain what generative AI (artificial intelligence) is, why someone may want to avoid it and how one can go about avoiding it or limiting it from daily use. He said he also will emphasize what AI does not and cannot do, as a way to make a lasting impact on patrons. He also will discuss the environmental impact of AI.

The second program of the series, “Ditching Google,” will be on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 3 p.m. Palmer will explain why someone may want to use alternative search engines and how they can start utilizing them.

The third program of the series, “Ditching Microsoft/Amazon,” will be on Thursday, Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. Palmer said these are “two tech juggernauts” that are part of daily life, but they do not need to be, or at least as much as they currently are. While these applications and Google are part of technological ecosystems that are hard to get out of, he said there are ways to do so, and he will discuss it in the program.

“I’m sure a lot of people have heard the phrase, ‘If a product is free, then chances are you are the product,'” Palmer said. “That’s kind of the big case with a lot of these companies. They’re making money off of your information and tracking everything you do.”

In the final part of the four-part series, titled “Ditching Meta” on Thursday, Dec. 17 at 3 p.m., Palmer will discuss the social media services that use Meta and how to use alternative social media apps instead. Facebook and Instagram, two of the most popular social media apps, are powered by Meta.

While Palmer will be discussing the potential harms of these big tech services and providing alternatives, he knows completely breaking up with them can be very hard or unrealistic. However, there are ways to make small changes.

“I’m going to tell people to take little steps at a time. I’m still using things like Google Drive, especially at work. You can kind of replace things where you can, a little bit here and there, and you won’t get overwhelmed with doing it all at once,” Palmer said.

Advance registration is required for each program. Guests do not need to attend all four; they can attend one, some or all. To register, go to gcls.librarycalendar.com.