When It Comes To Writing, The Process Is As Important As The Finished Product
Don't relinquish this gift to technology.
My young adult son was showing me with satisfaction something that ChatGPT had written for him the other day. I read it with a critical eye and gave him some suggestions on how he could improve it. We then proceeded to have a lively discussion about the benefits of writing original content versus the convenience of relying on AI. If you are curious about where I stand on the issue, I am writing this blog without the help of ChatGPT.
I remember when microwaves first became a fixture in every kitchen. They were supposed to revolutionize how families cooked and make it so much easier to gather around the dinner table amid increasingly busy schedules. My grandmother, who raised eight children and boarded many young college students through the years, refused to get one. She insisted that she liked the taste of food cooked the “old-fashioned way,” and said she enjoyed preparing it that way. Of course, in my infinite teenage wisdom, I thought she was just being stubborn and “stuck in her ways”. I insisted that nobody in the future would cook the way she did, and everyone would be cooking with microwaves.
Decades later, I rarely use my microwave and relish the days I can spend the necessary time on homemade meals that require hours of cooking or simmering slowly. Not only does the food prepared “the old-fashioned way” taste better, but the process provides opportunities that microwave cooking does not. Couples bond while cooking meals together. Children learn valuable skills and life lessons as they help their parents in the kitchen. And friends create memories as they jovially create new recipes together. One of the reasons holidays like Thanksgiving are so special is because of the homemade food that is painstakingly prepared and served with love using recipes passed down from generations. I doubt Norman Rockwell would have painted a picture of children begging for the dish their mother just pulled from the microwave.
Consider all of the benefits of cooking the old-fashioned way and what gets sacrificed for the convenience of microwave cooking. Then, think about everything involved in the process of writing original content and what is surrendered when we relegate that to Artificial Intelligence (AI). The ability to think and express those thoughts through written and verbal language sets us apart from other animals. It makes us human. ChatGPT may become the standard mode of producing text for the majority, but I refuse to relinquish my humanity to technology.
As I shared with my son, writing requires me to mull over my thoughts and ideas in a way that nothing else does. We’ve all uttered something rash in the heat of the moment we wish we could take back because emotion often causes us to speak before we think. Writing is different. Sure, we may regret something we’ve written. After thinking better of it, we may decide not to send a letter meant to bring guilt or pain to a friend or loved one, but even the scathing or regrettable words on a page require contemplation and introspection to write. As we conceive and organize our thoughts, we learn and grow as human beings. The process of writing itself is valuable and worth preserving as we witness technology taking over more aspects of life.
The other benefit of writing original content is for your readers. I do not doubt that ChatGPT can string words together creatively or clearly, but I want my readers to hear my unique voice through my original content. Robert Frost wrote, "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." Microwave ovens can render food hot and eatable but cannot emulate slow-cooked meals made with fresh ingredients and love. AI can produce quality content, but it cannot truly bring the level of emotion and creativity a human mind is capable of.
I know I won’t convince a culture that has come to rely so heavily on technology for all of its needs to avoid using ChatGPT. That isn’t my goal. I simply hope to encourage some people to remember the unique gift of language we have been given and appreciate it enough to preserve the art of thinking and writing. In some small way, I hope to preserve a bit of our humanity.