Clutch Your Pearls!
We live in a world of smartphones, smart watches, smart homes, GPS, autocorrect, predictive text, Grammarly, recommendation algorithms, facial recognition, voice assistants, and technology making decisions and predictions in the background all day long.
But mention that you used AI to clean up something you wrote and suddenly it’s, **GASP**
Listen, I absolutely believe you should write your own material!
Have your own thoughts.
Tell your own stories.
Form your own opinions.
Do your own studying.
Use your own voice.
If you’re writing something that is supposed to come from your heart, then for goodness’ sake, let it actually come from YOUR heart!
I don’t want AI thinking for me!
I don’t want AI thinking for me!
Will I write something and then run it through Grammarly to fix my punctuation or tell me if it's easy to follow?
!!Absolutely!!
Sometimes....my brain gets six paragraphs ahead of my fingers, doubles back for something I forgot, takes an unexpected side road, and then throws in seventeen commas for good measure.
That doesn’t mean the thoughts weren’t mine. They are ALL my words because I don't allow anything to be added except punctuation. There’s a BIG difference between using AI to replace your voice and using AI to help clean up your voice.
And if someone believes that using AI in ANY capacity somehow makes your work fake or dishonest, then I hope they’re prepared to apply that standard consistently.
Turn off the smart features on your phone.
Stop using predictive text and autocorrect.
Don’t use Grammarly for anything.
Don’t ask Siri or Alexa anything.
Skip the personalized recommendations on your streaming services and shopping apps.
And you might want to take a good hard look at how many services you use every day that already have some form of AI or machine learning quietly working behind the scenes. 😏
Because you don’t get to use AI all day long when it’s convenient and invisible and then clutch your pearls because somebody used it to find the comma they lost somewhere around paragraph four or they use it to make sure the reader can actually follow what they were trying to say in the first place.
Now, do I think we should hand AI a blank page and say, “Write my thoughts, beliefs, experiences, and opinions for me”?
Not a chance!
WRITE YOUR OWN STUFF!!!
Think for yourself. Study for yourself. Keep your personality, your weird little phrases, your humor, your convictions, and even some of the imperfections that make your writing sound like YOU.
Then....and only then, if you need a tool to help organize the rambling, catch the typos, fix the punctuation, or tell you that the sentence you just wrote is approximately the length of the Mississippi River...
By all means....use the tool. 😂
AI should be a tool in your toolbox, not the person holding the toolbox.
And fixing a comma does NOT constitute an identity crisis.
!!Absolutely!!
Sometimes....my brain gets six paragraphs ahead of my fingers, doubles back for something I forgot, takes an unexpected side road, and then throws in seventeen commas for good measure.
That doesn’t mean the thoughts weren’t mine. They are ALL my words because I don't allow anything to be added except punctuation. There’s a BIG difference between using AI to replace your voice and using AI to help clean up your voice.
And if someone believes that using AI in ANY capacity somehow makes your work fake or dishonest, then I hope they’re prepared to apply that standard consistently.
Turn off the smart features on your phone.
Stop using predictive text and autocorrect.
Don’t use Grammarly for anything.
Don’t ask Siri or Alexa anything.
Skip the personalized recommendations on your streaming services and shopping apps.
And you might want to take a good hard look at how many services you use every day that already have some form of AI or machine learning quietly working behind the scenes. 😏
Because you don’t get to use AI all day long when it’s convenient and invisible and then clutch your pearls because somebody used it to find the comma they lost somewhere around paragraph four or they use it to make sure the reader can actually follow what they were trying to say in the first place.
Now, do I think we should hand AI a blank page and say, “Write my thoughts, beliefs, experiences, and opinions for me”?
Not a chance!
WRITE YOUR OWN STUFF!!!
Think for yourself. Study for yourself. Keep your personality, your weird little phrases, your humor, your convictions, and even some of the imperfections that make your writing sound like YOU.
Then....and only then, if you need a tool to help organize the rambling, catch the typos, fix the punctuation, or tell you that the sentence you just wrote is approximately the length of the Mississippi River...
By all means....use the tool. 😂
AI should be a tool in your toolbox, not the person holding the toolbox.
And fixing a comma does NOT constitute an identity crisis.
......And on that note... I’m realizing this hormonal season of life has apparently stirred up a level of irritability I did NOT have before. I’m going to have to get a handle on that.
Because lately there are things that used to make me shrug that now have me ready to write a dissertation. 😬
So, Lord, while I’m over here asking AI to guard my commas...
please be a guard over my mouth when it would be better for me to just hush. 😂
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