Everything sounds the same

When did we lose our edge?

It can’t have been so long ago when the very shape of words was as interesting as the story. The spine of the tale was pointed and challenging, and weird, and offensive, and critical.

We can blame AI for the sameness flooding the internet if we want to. But really, it’s us. We are to blame for allowing the fast food of content to take over our critical thinking. AI is there, but we are the ones feeding it, prompting it. and the more we do so, the more it learns, the more it pumps out, like the most vanilla cycle you ever saw.

Do you ever wonder what our words will look like in ten years time? Will we reminisce about the “grammar police” who used to call out and scold us for typos? In a sea of perfectly smooth and flowing words that, when you look at them, actually mean a lot of nothing, will we pine after the good old days of human error?

I read a LinkedIn post today about Alex Hannaford, a thrice-decade journalist starting a newsletter called The Deadliners.

“Today I’m launching Deadliners, a newsletter dedicated to journalism in the age of AI.” he said in his post.

“I’ll be bringing you exclusive interviews with the people actually thinking about the future of journalism: reporters who are refusing to quit, founders starting new and interesting platforms, and storytellers finding exciting ways to tell us what’s going on in the world.”

Doesn’t that sound refreshingly wonderful?

Fortunately, Alex isn’t the only one.

Since the dawn of newsletter platforms, we have had solid writers creating their own spaces and sharing their writing skills, which are now a rare jewel and will certainly be in the future. Good writing, with original and critical thought, will be an oasis in the desert of sameness, and for that, I am thankful.

AI has a place, but we don’t have to bow down to it. We don’t have to accept it as how the world of words is, now. We can still retain our creativity and embrace human error for the sake of interest and edge in the world.

I dare you to challenge yourself. Put the AI away and write. And no matter if it’s shit. Keep going, get better, be the oasis.