Have you ever struggled to do something on your phone or tablet and wished someone was around to help you? Did you know that we here at Ignacio Community Library (ICL) are happy to help with things like this? Everyone who works here at ICL has extensive knowledge of technology and we often assist patrons with phones, tablets, and laptops. If your issue is more complex, we are also happy to make a specific appointment with a librarian or library staffer to help you one-on-one with more in-depth tech issues; we refer to this as “Digital Services.”
Some common issues we help with during Digital Services appointments include backing up to the cloud, attaching photos to email or Facebook posts, navigating Facebook in general, deleting files to free up storage on devices, helping with general understanding of iOS and Android Operating Systems, and using Libby for eBooks and eAudiobooks. This is a small sampling of the types of technological support we provide; if I haven’t mentioned your specific issue here, we can still probably help.
One of the most common tech issues I see and often assist patrons with is email management. It is extremely common for older adults to feel the need to delete emails. I’m not sure where this compulsion originates, but it’s nearly ubiquitous in the over 60-year-old set. Personally, I see deleting emails as a tremendous waste of time that can be potentially problematic, especially if you accidentally delete something important. For example, my 92-year-old mother accidentally deleted a $100 Amazon Gift Card email I sent for Mother’s Day. Luckily, Amazon allows you to resend gift cards if they haven’t been redeemed, but this could have been disastrous!
What I usually recommend is to sort your emails by unread first; that way the emails you have already looked at will be grayed-out and below the line, so out of sight, but still searchable and findable if you need them again. If there are emails you don’t want to even look at, you can mark them as read and they will drop below the line. There is almost never any reason to delete emails, as your email provider almost certainly isn’t charging you for space and emails don’t take up space on your device, since they live in the cloud. Try sorting by unread first and see if you like it, you may find it delightful to regain all the lost time you used to spend deleting emails. If you aren’t sure how to find the settings to enable this, drop in to ICL and let one of our helpful staff show you.
Now if deleting emails is an activity that brings you joy, go ahead and continue to do it! It’s probably not harmful, provided you are careful not to delete anything important. However, if deleting emails is an activity that weighs on your mind or brings you stress, feel free to stop doing it completely and enjoy your additional free time!
We hope to see you soon in the library, whether it’s for digital services or for any other reason!