Emojis, Auto Correct, AI, and the Dumbing Down of Society

When we first started 'chatting' with one another on the internet in the late 1990's we began seeing abbreviations showing up like 'lol' or 'lmbo' and it seemed harmless enough, but as with most things there is a very slippery slope. When you look at emojis, auto correct, or AI, on the surface you see fun, efficiency, and the fascination of what we could do and create and there is nothing inherently wrong with any of them in and of themselves. But we need to look at how these things are affecting us in the long run as a society.

Emojis were one of the first alarms to go off that got my attention about a growing problem. I would be sitting in my cubicle working as an insurance adjuster for USAA and would always see heart, thumbs up, and laughing emojis show up in our chats. It seemed odd that in a professional work environment people would be using these as a form of communication, but I just decided to ignore it and tried to refrain from using them as much as possible. Over the years the use of these continued to grow in every aspect of our individual lives. It is almost impossible to have a 'conversation' with someone via text message without seeing or using a number of these 'cute' or 'funny' little icons. And that brings us to another two things we cannot avoid in our conversations and that is auto correct and AI.

Auto correct is a great tool to use to write an effective and clear communication with another person, but with how humans adapt it has led to something most people wouldn't even be aware of or at least acknowledge and that is it has destroyed our ability to spell. In the past when you were writing a letter to someone and came across a challenging word you would think long and hard before you put pen to paper because quite simply you didn't want to look like an idiot. The more you would write that word out the more confident you would become of the spelling and become that much more of an effective communicator. Now we simply approximate the spelling of a word and depend on auto correct to fix any errors and we move on without a thought. No longer are we concerned with learning how to spell but are more concerned about getting something done quicker.

The same can be said of AI and putting aside all of the 'Terminator' concerns and fake podcasts, we can see the greatest harm that is being done by technology and that is the destruction of one's ability to think. AI is monitoring everything you communicate and begins to assume what you want to say next and then suggests it in a 'faded' text in front of what you're currently typing. Alot of times what it is saying is exactly what you want to, but sometimes it is way off. It would be dishonest to say I have never used this feature and hit the 'tab' button and moved right along with what I was writing, but this simple act is destroying our brain's ability to think critically and creatively. We our bypassing the exercising of our brain by the repetitive spelling of words or spelling out what can be replaced by a funny smiley face.

We can see the effect this has had on our kid's ability to communicate effectively. Our children are even putting emojis in their college papers. I have personally sat with people and listened to them praise how AI created songs, pictures, and voices for their music and art. Others, including pastor's, have used AI to create their work product...and they don't seem to even notice how this is changing society and the individual human being.

One of the most often used descriptors of God is 'The Creator' and we see his creativity throughout our world, and we are said to be made in His image. That means we have the divine spark of creativity and the ability to learn. When you look back historically at some of the things we prize most you will find things like The Mona Lisa, Saint Peter's Basilica, the pyramids, The Great Wall of China, and many others, but why is that? It is because it took the learning, wisdom, and creativity of man to create something that had never before existed. Now you can simply type in a few words of what you want a picture to look like and suddenly AI creates a beautiful work of 'art', but by allowing this we are robbing ourselves of the effort and joy of accomplishment by the work of our own hands. I would encourage everyone to use these tools at a minimum, if at all, and try to use your brain and talents to create something that you can truly be proud of. We need to learn to discipline our minds again and not always take the route of least resistance.

By Jeffrey Brandon Lee