Opinion: It’s Good that Writing Takes Time

By Te Urukeiha Tuhua

AI is a new technology that we don’t fully understand yet, and it has the capacity to be used for good. But we should not be using it to help with our writing. I’m not here to preach, or act as though I’m morally superior to people who use ChatGPT to help out with their assignments. I too have used it as an assistant; sometimes I use it to brainstorm ideas, or provide me with essay structures. It’s quick, accessible, and incredibly convenient. More and more people use AI routinely as a tool to help them with their various writing projects. But is this helping us, or hurting us? 

We are teaching ourselves to be reliant on AI rather than on our own minds. In an age where attention spans are shortening and media literacy is weak, it is imperative that we continue to form our own ideas and think critically. Problem solving is a muscle that we need to keep working. The more that I use AI, the more I distrust and question my own ideas. I find myself attempting to write something, but I am compromised before I have even really begun; I worry that my writing is somehow wrong, and that perhaps I should run it through ChatGPT to make it better before I show anyone my work. I wish I could go back to before I’d ever used AI. I relied on my mind, and saved the second-guessing until the first draft was finished. Despite generative AI constantly saying things that are blatantly wrong, I find myself believing in its superiority. It gets harder to write an essay without it. 

The process of writing is a vital art that helps us to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. When we take the time to write, we circle around our ideas and explore different possibilities. The drafting and editing phase creates honest conversations that resonate with our readers, and gives our words a certain energy on the page. No matter what we write, our pieces will always reflect something about ourselves and our culture. It is a way of communicating and connecting to others, and placing meaning into the world. 

Truman Capote said that he started writing because ‘I always felt that nobody was going to understand me, going to understand what I felt about things… At least on paper I could put down what I thought.’ Regular journaling keeps my mind organised and helps me to process my emotions. It takes whatever thoughts I’d had racing around my mind and places it onto the paper, where I can begin to make sense of it. This often gives me sudden bursts of inspiration that motivate me to write whatever assignment I’ve been putting off. Getting all of my ideas out onto the paper helps me identify connections between them and ways to develop them further, and it gives my work a personal voice. 

It is easy to become reliant on AI to write emails and essays when we are so often overloaded with work. Many students are working part or full-time on top of studying, or have other obligations. There are deadlines to meet and our to-do lists are always growing. But at our hearts, we are creative and analytical beings. Taking our time with our writing is what helps us to develop our ideas, build on our critical thinking skills, and gain confidence in our own capabilities. Even writing an email is part of connecting with others and communicating, things that we desperately need to hold onto as a society that is growing more isolationist. The widespread use of generative AI is a symptom of the capitalist society that we live in, where speed and production is prioritised over our health and rest. We are expected to work to the detriment of our own health and livelihoods, and this isn’t right or natural for us. Everything is supposed to take time; even, or perhaps especially, writing.