I graduated high school in Germany in 2022. Looking back on it now, I honestly admire the fact that I was able to write close to eight pages in German class back then. If I sat down to do that today, I honestly do not think I could. It is sad, yeah. I mean, my writing style back then was honestly pretty awful too. Sorry to my German teacher. But I used to have the focus to write eight pages in one sitting. A lot of people today can only dream of that.
I think a lot of you already know why that is. AI has not only taken away some of my creativity, but it has also made me less likely to actually sit down and write something myself. It feels like I have genuinely forgotten how to write normal texts. These days, people use AI to write every email and every message. At some point, everything starts to sound exactly the same. The same dashes everywhere. A lot of people are losing their style because of it. Maybe even their own voice entirely.
A good example: my professor and I were trying to write a group email for a meeting that happens every month. It is a space where students can connect with each other and all that. Anyway, we were talking through how he could word the email. Neither of us could come up with a really good sentence that would catch people’s attention and convince them to come. We sat there for at least ten minutes. Eventually, we managed to piece a sentence together, but it still hit us pretty hard. After that, we had to realize that we had become dependent on it. Not necessarily because we have to, but because it is easier than coming up with something yourself. You get used to not having to think for yourself anymore. It is just more convenient.
But there are still ways to get better, because I am writing this text without AI too. Writing is a muscle. That means you can train it. And that is something you should keep in mind before you ask AI to write a whole book for you next time. Force yourself to think it through. No matter how bad it sounds.