This week’s reading was pretty cool. I struggle to use those words and mean them regarding most course readings (barring Beowulf and the Romantic era of poetry), but I do mean it this time. I have emotion’s role in discerning whether or not a source is worth reading, critical ignoring (!!!), and the potential death of style on the docket today. There’s a chance that I veer off towards the end and start talking about something to do with a school project, so I apologize in advance.
I’m a very emotionally driven individual. Headlines make me angry very easily, and I cry at any moment in media that could be perceived as even remotely heartfelt. With that said, reading Verified has seen me subtract my knee-jerk emotional reaction from most sources that I’ve looked at this semester. The second to last chapter of Verified basically hit me on the nose with a newspaper for this. Emotions are tools, just like AI and search engines. The difference lies in what emotion tells us. Emotion isn’t there to tell us about the source per se; it’s there to tell us why a source might have caught our eye and what we find important about what’s right in front of us. Being able to utilize emotion when considering sources feels oddly empowering to me, especially when I consider emotion as an introspective tool in an otherwise outward-facing toolbox.
Critical ignoring is the best concept maybe ever. You’re telling me that I can look at a clearly rage bait headline and completely ignore it? Sign me up. Ignoring useless sources that are just vying for attention is wonderful. I don’t have a whole lot to say beyond that. I’m going to ignore so many news headlines, TikTok creators, Tweets, and Snapchat “news.” I greatly appreciate its addition in Verified.
The postscript made me a little sad. I’d like to believe that learning and perfecting style in my writing is still important, but that optimism can only go so far. It’s easier than ever to ape someone else’s whole gimmick, pass it off on your own, and become more popular than the person that was copied. I’m not sure that I can uphold my “Style Matters!” argument when generative AI could write a stylized piece for me. I guess what matters to me the most is that, despite the methods someone could use to mimic me, finding my own writing style is still important. I want to be able to say that my style is, well, mine. I take pride in knowing that everything I’ve written, no matter how contrived or lacking in quality, is original.
I think that’s about all I’ve got. I’d like to reiterate that I did really enjoy the reading this week. It was an empowering end to Verified, even if the postscript was a bit sour. It’s hard to believe that the semester reading is already done. I’m not quite ready to finish the semester out yet, but I suppose that time moves forward regardless of my opinion.
-swan
Comments
4 responses to “Posting About a Postscript”
Hello!
Thank you for such an insightful post. I agree with you on all counts–including being an incredibly emotionally driven individual. Over the past couple years, I’ve been developing the skill of separating the facts of a situation from my emotions. But when doing so, it’s still important to remember that your feelings are there to help you. Don’t disregard them, but don’t let them shape your reality. Critical ignoring was also fascinating to me! The internet is built to keep you there, so the best rebellion is to use critical ignoring skills. It does feel freeing to get that validation from the book, too, that we’re allowed–and encouraged–to not think about everything we see online. Great post!
I love that you talk about how you’ve learned to control your emotions and use them to your advantage! And I really like how you summarize the information from these chapters into your own language. Being emotional about a headline or piece of information isn’t a bad thing, but you just have to know how to use those emotions to your advantage. Saying that using emotions in this way is empowering was really cool!
I also love critical ignoring! Being able to finally ignore a headline clearly designed to garner some intense emotion or (clearly fake) source without feeling like I’m missing something is so freeing.
I am really glad the section on emotions was so helpful to you. I found it helpful as well, but I was always someone who employed critical ignoring. I found the section about being overwhelmed and the importance of it is really important. I am definitely the type of person to try to push through the overwhelming feelings, so being reassured that it is normal and may be a sign to take a break was nice.
Your worry over AI emulating style is certainly one that is fair. I am of the opinion to not care about what AI gets good at. I will spend my time working on my own writing style because it is important to me. Moreover, I believe that what they were referring to is AI’s ability to emulate the style we see across the internet, so it may be important to work on your own independent style, which may prove hard to emulate. Basically, don’t lose sight of what work is fulfilling to you.
I’m thinking about what you’re saying in particular about the “style matters” argument, and while I understand the instinct to feel sad about how generative AI acts with this whole thing, I think you’re on the right track with giving a purpose to your own style. It’s so easy to fall to the idea that style no longer matters, that perfecting writing is a failing game because of how quickly generative AI adapts and takes things over. But I think you’re alright and that you’ve got the right idea. Yeah, generative AI can steal a style, but it can’t steal the creativity of a style. Even if style itself no longer matters, the creativity behind the style does. It’s practically a sign to engage in all the creative methods that you have ever wanted to try.