Educators’ FOMO in Times of AI

I don’t know about you, but I’m a heavy Internet user. I’m on social media, I create content, I use artificial intelligence (AI), I make videos, I edit—you name it. But I’m starting to feel overwhelmed by this ocean of tools. It’s impossible to keep up, impossible to use them all.

This feeling has its own name: FOMO, which stands for «Fear Of Missing Out.» It refers to social anxiety characterized by a constant desire to stay connected and updated, driven by the fear of falling behind others. In the context of education and technology, FOMO manifests as pressure to know and use every available digital tool, fearing that if we don’t, we might miss out on essential opportunities for our teaching practice or professional development.

Let’s imagine this is a sea full of fish, and in that sea, many people are fishing. These people have lists indicating which fish are faster, more nutritious, more colorful, or simply better. Suppose you also want fish because, apparently, if you don’t have fish, you can’t call yourself a fisherman.

Now imagine you have a boat—just one—and it has limited space. You want to load it with as many fish as possible. But some fish won’t fit in your boat, and others simply aren’t meant for you. Suppose this fisherman is a teacher, the sea is a school hallway, and the boat is our capacity: our classroom time, our resources. This teacher meets a fellow fisherman/teacher in the hallway—someone who not only cycles and cooks gluten-free meals but also writes code with Claude and creates graphics with Napkin. Our first teacher, who tries hard to be a good fisherman but barely manages meetings, planning sessions, parent-teacher conferences, and their own life, now feels FOMO: the constant fear of missing something vital that others seem to master effortlessly.

But what exactly are we missing out on? For example, I was recently looking for information about the best scale to evaluate students in open learning and saw that the choices are between Likert scales and rubrics. I understand that rubrics might be better due to their descriptive nature. Our teacher, eager to fish, might rush to ask AI to create a rubric; surely, there are already AIs designed to create rubrics automatically. However, even that comes with a template that doesn’t fit every student or situation. For instance, the rubric might say that a student with exceptional performance earns an «A+»—but what exactly does «exceptional» mean? Probably, she’ll ask the AI that question too.

Let’s be honest… I’m one of those people who encourage their students to use all the tools available. But I also think we need to slow down. We should make a short list and use only what we truly need. But how do we know what we need? Well, it depends on the questions you ask yourself and the gaps you’re trying to fill. I also think we should focus on preliminary work. That means planning the process and considering the context. It’s not about overwhelming ourselves with stunning images, impressive videos, graphics, code, or fish.

Education isn’t about using technology but about paving a path to help others acquire knowledge, ask the right questions, and make meaningful judgments. Technology alone doesn’t create aware citizens or critical students. As someone who uses AI daily, teaches master’s and doctoral students to use it for research, and helps teachers integrate it into their teaching, I believe we must be cautious about excessive use of digital tools. We’re currently in an initial phase, a sort of honeymoon with these technologies, but it’s crucial to evaluate their real impact and utility in our daily practices.

Finally, I firmly believe there must be space for those who don’t want to fish or are perfectly happy with just two fish. It’s possible to choose not to fish and still be aware that fish exist. It’s also possible to be a fantastic fisherman yet remain a poor educator. We shouldn’t close our eyes to the sea, but everyone has the legitimate right to decide how far they want to go and how they want to navigate this vast digital ocean.

And finally, the ocean is not for everyone. Not all of us know how to swim, not all of us have a boat, and some of us are even allergic to fish.