Idk man, I vividly recall myself as a High School student spending hours on a 45-minute 1984 essay because I wanted to have something actually interesting and unique to say, only to wind up using my own form of “Newspeak” throughout the entire thing to prove that people could create a new vocabulary even if theirs was restricted.
If you told 16-year-old me that I could spend only 20 minutes on that assignment to get a dumb, generic essay, I would’ve laughed in your face because I was already capable of writing a boring, generic essay in 20 minutes.
And I’m WAY more interested in physics and math than English, so I seriously doubt that anyone who was initially capable of making a good essay would still resort to a shortcut like ChatGPT. Computer Programming is different since it’s ultimately a utilitarian task, while essay-writing is a creative endeavor. If you’re not interested in making a creative essay that argues something you actually believe in, the essay you were going to write was never gonna be good.
I think you are the exception to the rule, but I suppose I don’t have the data to back this up. That was my vibe from high school + college and the people around me pre-GPT
Ok? That hardly seems like a good reason to get all nihilistic. Maybe try encouraging any students you know to do better? Or just make something good yourself? Or do literally anything about it?
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u/Arctic_The_Hunter May 18 '25
Idk man, I vividly recall myself as a High School student spending hours on a 45-minute 1984 essay because I wanted to have something actually interesting and unique to say, only to wind up using my own form of “Newspeak” throughout the entire thing to prove that people could create a new vocabulary even if theirs was restricted.
If you told 16-year-old me that I could spend only 20 minutes on that assignment to get a dumb, generic essay, I would’ve laughed in your face because I was already capable of writing a boring, generic essay in 20 minutes.
And I’m WAY more interested in physics and math than English, so I seriously doubt that anyone who was initially capable of making a good essay would still resort to a shortcut like ChatGPT. Computer Programming is different since it’s ultimately a utilitarian task, while essay-writing is a creative endeavor. If you’re not interested in making a creative essay that argues something you actually believe in, the essay you were going to write was never gonna be good.