How AI Separates Us From Reality

I was raised in front of a screen for most of my childhood. My parents divorced when I was 2, and I never knew what they were like as a married couple. Based on the stories I've heard, that is the best-case scenario. Ultimately, it is their first time on Earth as well, and there is no textbook lesson on how to raise a kid on your own. I was given my first phone, and while my parents sorted their own baggage, I was plunged into a world of overstimulation and extreme content.

That said, my brain reacts differently to technology than some of my friends. A habitual morning scroll is necessary if I want to be in a relatively good mood throughout the day. At the same time, I am capable of playing a game and talking to my friends, unlike others, who find screens so enthralling that they cannot comprehend the world around them, as I did as a child. I find my relationship to technology a curse, as well as a skill that I've honed from years of practice.

With generative AI filling the world with its slop, a demand for another skill emerges. Younger generations usually have an easier time sniffing out AI, compared to older generations. I have a suspicion that the professor I write these blogs for uses AI to grade and respond to our posts. Prove me wrong. Anyway, the transition to using AI tools to communicate and express oneself creates a barrier between the people involved in the communication, and this is apparent to the younger generation.

Instead of recognizing this and choosing to stray away from using this dividing medium, I find that young people are encouraging it. They use ChatGPT instead of Google, or they use Meta AI's chat summarization feature to get the message across, ignoring all of the personalization that goes into all mediums of communication.

We speak with inflections and accents. We write with personalized handwriting and quirks. We communicate with body language and visual literacy. The transition to simplification and summarizing for efficiency is making us dull and separated. In an era where we need unity more than ever, AI separates us from reality and each other.