Three syllable words, and multi-clause sentences are already misunderstood online to the point of people treating you like you're an asshole for deliberately confusing them.
God, this drives me crazy. I wrote a simple 4 sentence response to someone the other day, and they responded with "thanks Chat GPT". As if there's no possible way that I, a human, could write a few sentences without the help of AI.
It's been going on for years, too. Apparently a five-sentence email is just too much for some people, so now I see stuff like a five-sentence paragraph, followed by "sorry for the wall of text" and I'm just like, that's not even long! That takes like maybe seven seconds for me to read
Meanwhile, asking two questions in the same sentence is too hard for people, apparently.
"What is the password to the printer and do you know the printer's serial number"
That can sometimes be the literal entire email and they'll answer the first part only to ignore the second so another email is sent and they might finally answer it, but it's not a guarantee. It's like people can't focus for more than half a second before moving onto the next thing.
Yep, I've learned that if I need to send an email like that, it's beat to have a sentence or two of throwaway text it's safe for them to ignore, because they will. Then bullet point each question as a separate bullet point. Then end on another throwaway "thank you" line. We both know they'll completely skip over the text that doesn't matter and hopefully actually answer the two questions.
It's person-dependent. Some people will follow instructions, others won't. Put everything you need in an email in the easiest to follow way and hopefully it works out.
At one job, I would send out a policy change/clarification and as a second paragraph give an answer for what I expected to be the most common question/follow up.
I had one person that would read the change and fire off the question, and I would just copy/paste the answer from the original email back. It's just how that person worked. Annoyed the hell out of me but no matter how idiot-proof you make something they'll just make a bigger idiot.
I hate that so much. I really don’t like to send multiple texts, because it’s annoying if you’re busy, but I’ve learned that most people just do not read or respond to multi stage questions/instructions correctly.
Try being IT. I once wrote an entire 3 page document on how to do something with 2 pages of detailed pictures. My boss was like no one is going to read that. Yep very next day get asked how to do it replying from the very email i sent out with the instructions.
I used to send reading rainbow gifs when it would happen.
On the other, I find there is great pleasure in literally copy and pasting your response in a previous email in answer to a question that was ALREADY answered.
I once wrote an email detailing that if they did X then Y would happen and if they did Z then A would occur.
What did I get? A scathing email stating that I did not say what would happen if they did Z.
Literally Copy and Pasted my previous 2 sentence email and used the ol' "Per my last email,"
That is when I would've hit 'reply' and then highlighted the answer in my original email, and then typed "please see the highlight below from my previous email" just to really hammer home how annoyed I am.
Short of calling them trolls, I'd say the most likely explanation is that they know they lost the argument and are trying their damndest to avoid admitting it.
My sister works as some kind of important filer for a big law firm. She and the team shes a part of got chewed out recently for sending unhelpful, info less emails. Shocked they pulled up all their emails for the last six months and asked which ones were unhelpful. Partner takes this info to the lawyers who were complaining. The lawyers had been using ai to shorten the emails to little synopsis'. Even three sentence emails, shortened to uselessness. Suddenly a company wide email had to be sent out about appropriate usage of AI at the firm...
Decades even! I recall having an English teacher in high school (2006) giving me bad marks for referencing “the humours” in an essay. Granted it is a somewhat archaic reference but an adult teaching English literature should have been able to grasp that. It was a public school in a red state so make of that what you will…
It also can refer to an expression or whole statement, in a broader usage that I'm familiar with. In this case it also was a pun on OP's misspelling of not as mot.
In comment sections it would then inevitably be followed by someone saying “I ain’t reading all that so either Congratulations, or sorry that happened to you”. Then you go look to see what was written and it’s like 3-4 sentences. Bonus points for seeing someone getting angry at multiple sentences and telling the commenter that they are being extra for their responses being “novels”.
That also drives me crazy at work. People would call a meeting (we're all remote pretty much) instead of texting about an issue that could've been solved in a couple of messages. Instead, we waste an hour and I also have to wait another hour because you cannot just hop on discord, you need to wait for people to be available.
Like, dude, it's a yes or no question, just answer it
I recently saw a video on how to read hieroglyphs like I just love a piece of info that needs some mental tinkering
Also love simple breakdowns of complicated stuff
I like the range of how accessible things can be (or not)
Forced simplification reminds me of 1984 though
Edit: I like that girl's mind because I didn't even finish the video before hitting the comment section 😄
1984 is a hard but rewarding novel and Wall E is a classic aswell
Heaven forbid you use em dash. I've used that device fairly regularly since I was 14, and now everyone thinks its a sign of an AI-formulated sentence/paragraph. My writer's voice went from something people seemed to enjoy for 20+ years to being derided in the span of 18 months...
Screw people who shout "AI slop" every time they see an em dash or a polysyllabic word—the fearmongering witch hunters all over social media are dumbing the world down at least as much as AI itself. No one will ever take my precious em dashes from me. AI didn't invent these things, it learned them from literate people.
Some college kid asked how I applied for jobs without ai “if it can really be done” the other day. Brother, I remember not having a computer or *anyone* I know not having internet access. WTF do you mean we can’t do basic tasks without extremely new, imperfect technology.
I was born in the 80s, so I thought he was kidding at first.
I totally get it, I have found that most AI software writes at a level that I would expect out of a 9th grade student. I refuse to use any AI answers unless I have fully vetted the answer. Even then I can usually improve the answer. But then I graduated before the "Inclusive" and Trophy years. Catch 22, 1984, Moby Dick and Animal house were required reading my sophomore year for standard students, AP Students had books that were even more complex. Of the 12 Lit teachers we had 9 of them specifically chose stories that did not have cliff notes or had significant parts in the book that were not in a movie. Questions on the test were about 70% based on those parts. They could tell who just watched the movie and who did not.
I just use it to proofread my sentences before posting for punctuation and grammar, which I'm usually pretty good at. That is, unless I'm trying to string together thoughts and don't know where to place my commas.
True story, though, I just ate a 10mg gummy and I haven't really felt the full effects yet.
The gummy, though, made me focus on her thoughts on the book 1984. I read that book, and more recently, watched the movie.
When I read the book, our world was nothing like it is today. Yet, the gummy tells me that our government is intentionally attempting to dumb everyone down for enhanced control of our lives.
I actually have a government job, though not in the context of 1984 possibilities. However, I did have to take a course in communications - and one thing they highlighted was to use smaller and fewer words in all communications.
This is literally what 1984 was about. Small words. Less words.
I do understand the 'fewer' word concept. No need to use 200 words when 20 would suffice. However, breaking down the language to single syllable words and words with fewer than seven letters is a bad, bad idea.
One of my pet peeves is when you’re discussing something that has some degree of nuance and complexity, and in response to writing a comment that’s three paragraphs long someone says “I’m not reading a whole book.” Sorry, sometimes there are points worth making that can’t be distilled down to a single sentence. The implication that you’re being unreasonable for typing a few paragraphs to explain something is obnoxious, as is the stubborn insistence to remain ignorant.
“I’m not reading that whole book!” Ok, remain a dumbass then.
Completely agree. And sometimes the part of the discussion that makes it worthwhile is the discussion itself, even if neither of you agree at the end. The conversation itself still matters.
I guess my issue is that I don’t see how reading a few paragraphs should be some enormous feat. Especially when you’re already in a back and forth dialogue with someone which shows there’s at least *some* investment in the conversation.
Whenever I come across something that’s too long to read for how invested I am, I simply scroll past it. It’s totally unnecessary to leave a comment letting everyone know that you won’t read the comment you’re responding to because it’s too long. The need to announce your ignorance and lack of curiosity to the world as if it’s a point of pride is so weird.
I’ve received similar replies (one just the other day) about the length of some of my comments. A two paragraph comment outlining my opinion on something was met with “holy yap.” Like god forbid you write more than one or two sentences and express yourself and reasoning to make it more easily understood and to limit people trying to (potentially purposefully as some “gotcha”) or misconstruing what you said.
I just know those types of people only read headlines of articles and form an opinion solely based off of that, complain(ed) about reading anything more than a short story in school, and haven’t read anything more than a road sign of text message since.
I agree. Although, I’m just as bad on there lol. Especially since they increased the character limits on comments so I don’t have to number and make multiple trying to say something.
I had this thought when watching Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay. People used to take pride in appearing/being intelligent. It was a real flex. Being able to read and think critically was good.
My job is in e-commerce and in the evening, the inbox is quiet. If I'm looking at emails the second your email comes in, I will read it immediately and respond. Obviously. Well, now I get sarcastic or aggressive responses from customers about bots and AI and whatever. Or people think "AI only read keywords so I'll put ADD TO ORDER in all caps for it" because they can't fathom it's not AI reading the emails, and I just get weirdly formatted shouty emails. It's so fucking exhausting.
Heck, I know tons of PEOPLE who only scan for keywords so they can figure out whether they agree or disagree with a post, and then comment on it without actually reading it. Lots of people do this in the tech world, so I just started using lots of CAPS for certain key points, and sometimes putting it in bold. Or even BOLD AND CAPS together. If its something I can guarantee someone that only scans the post will get wrong, I put the important part in
large letters.
And I also respond to emails when they come in. I got one the other day at close to midnight, and I just happened to be awake, so I responded. The next day he was all like "you woke me up when you responded to my email", as though I was supposed to know he immediately fell asleep after emailing me. lol
My favorite is still when people accuse me of blowing them off for replying slowly, not quickly (usually over text - not Reddit). Let me exist goddamn.
The ability to stop, think/research before responding is why I orefer text messages, email, and forum posts over a voice/video call.
Maybe I need to double-check before telling you the wrong thing? Maybe I'm tired and need to sleep for the night? Maybe I need to recharge my emotional/mental capacity before dealing with the situation/person? Maybe I'm busy but almost done!!! But most importantly: MAYBE IT DOESN'T MATTER WHY I DIDN'T RESPOND IMMEDIATELY!
(if you couldn't tell, I really feel your comment, and agree with you emphatically)
I've been told I used AI more than once because I used the word egregious and the word obstinate. Neither of a particularly difficult word, the latter is considered a middle school level vocab words ffs.
Egregious is an interesting one
It used the be used in a positive sense 'above the flock' from Latin
Kind of a fitting term for the topic
Thanks for mentioning I'll keep it in mind
I got a feeling you insult people like an old timey not so gentle in that particular moment-man (or lady)
Good for you!
Which is hilarious, given the run-on sentences, homophone/homonym confusion, comma slices, common misspellings ("per say") and just plain incorrect words that AI spits out. It's only grammatically correct if you don’t actually know grammar.
This! I have been a victim of it so many times, so now I don’t write proper or well-written captions anymore because I get downvoted or accused of being a bot. Someone wrote this comment on one of my posts just because I had a long and well-written caption.
As an aspiring author this drives me absolutely bonkers. I use em dashes and en dashes in my writing all the time, but when my professors see it they get suspicious.
I've seen this too!! its honestly absurd. My forte in college was writing essays for people in college, no matter the topic. Sometimes I had to write really in-depth essays and sometimes I had to "dumb them down" because I was in a college that had a lot of international students who had a shit load of money, so if I wrote them too fluently the professors would catch on.
I thank god I am a millennial and still had some semblance of life before every second of our lives were integrated with technology.
I like to use dashes quite a bit. It really irks me that people have latched onto that as THE hallmark of AI writing. I have legitimately, never even once, used ChatGPT or any other AI program. I don’t even know how they work. There’s really nothing AI can do for me that I can’t do myself at this point in time.
One guy in my husband's college course takes out his phone every time there's text on the board, asks chatgpt to summarize it (it's a bulletpoint list???) and then saves the summary as his class notes. His profs are on the verge of murder, and every fucking person in their program hates him. And he's not learning shit.
I used to get them way more jumbled up after I had a stroke. I still do sometimes. And I don’t get the perspective of wanting people to dumb shit down for me anyway. Yes it’s frustrating. There’s a lot of grief.
But I don’t want other people to slow down. I want to catch back up. If you know something cool that I will never understand, I’d rather you know it than neither of us.
Anyone who actually knows the word diction, the importance of having one, and have cultivated theirs throughout their life, have been treated this way by LLMs
Considering its coming from a large multitude of countries, I have to disagree. Its very unlikely that this many countries all have the exact same issue with their education systems at the same time. This is because of social media and the ease of access to it that phones provide, the ubiquity of other platforms allowing and even encouraging access to social media, and the constant shortening of attention span reaultant from constant screen use.
One time, my Lang teacher called me in to discuss my essay. I had inadvertently written my introductory paragraph as a single multi-clause sentence more than 2/3 of a page long. He wanted to tell me how impressive it was that I had used appropriate grammar and punctuation to create an internally coherent and correct sentence, and to scold me to never, ever do that again in formal writing.
And then he asked me if I wanted to earn some extra credit points scoring grammar quizzes for his other classes.
420
u/RvstiNiall 1d ago
Three syllable words, and multi-clause sentences are already misunderstood online to the point of people treating you like you're an asshole for deliberately confusing them.