I recently left my “dream set up” in Portugal. I'd lived there for over 3 years. Middle of no where. I thought I'd found the mythical bubble to raise my children in. My landlady, who was also my neighbour, was on the same page. Or so I thought. She's the WAPF chapter leader for our area after all.
One of (the many, many, many) reasons I left that house, was this.
My eldest daughter was 7 when we moved in. The little girl next door was 8.
I raise my daughters with zero personal devices.
The little girl next door was given an iPad by her parents for her 9th birthday.
Around 12 months ago, she informed my daughter that, “you aren't my best friend anymore. Chat GPT is.’
I watched the creativity and imagination gradually leave this young girl over the last months. She chats with her damn device around the clock, while her parents deem it “educational” and “necessary to move with the times’.
As my Granddad used to say….”Beam me up Scotty”.
I want to hurl my device into the nearest landfill. And as soon as I work out a way to provide for my children without it, that is exactly what I intend to do.
I started reading this as I poured myself a cup of broth this morning. I was intending to listen to the audio once I got out the door. But I couldn’t stop reading..: as usual you drew me in and then blew me away.
Holy Smokes
I have not used or queried or whatever any chat AI anything… well maybe I have because I have asked google questions before… anyway…. Those paragraphs are horrifying. Truely.
I so appreciate how serious you are, how seriously you take yourself and your time/ your effort/ what you produce.
Thoughtful.
Intentional.
All of us are asking these questions and wondering what the future holds…. How lucky we are to be connected to someone like you who articulates the landscape and the choices so clearly. Humankeeper, absolutely love that. ❤️
I’ll tell you one thing. If I had a little epistle of some kind show up in my mailbox once a month or whatever from Slowdown Farmstead Tara I would skip down to that box with a spring in my step…. And I would relish that arrival like a letter from a dear friend…. Which… is what that would be.
Consider me an advocate for something like that if the day should come where you decide substack isn’t for you.
Oh my heavens I absolutely loved this essay! By the end I was cheering and ready to take up the call! You echo my own sentiments about AI. I will join you in being a humankeeper!
Beautifully written Tara. The AI stuff does scare me because it is hard to decipher what is real and what isn't. I don't know about you but I have always been an optimist and have seen the good in things, but AI has turned me into someone cynical and untrusting. I hate that feeling. I would love to sit and talk to you, in person, with someone real and just talk. I miss that, most conversations are now just quick text or memes sent to each other. I appreciate those for what they are but real conversations are needed. If you decide to do a written format in paper, sign me up! Set up a P.O. box and I'll write back. 😊 or next time you visit Virginia, reach out and we can get a coffee or meal. Thanks for your beautiful writings (and art inserts! I love seeing the different artists, many are new to me).
Thank goodness from the depths of my heart and soul for you, Tara, and your human keeping. We need to be human beings more than ever. AI is a wicked, black hole. Everything you have written resounds with what is the most important in life. Thank you, thank you❤️
Yup! Turning toward grounding myself in human things. Feeling into my own humanness and creativity to move forward in the world. Thanks for this special essay! Timely!
Dear Tara, I am so glad you addressed this whole AI issue. “It’s a tool, like everything else!”, “People thought the telephone was evil when it first came to be!”, “It’s amazing for writing report cards!”. These are all things I hear from colleagues, friends and even family. When they say it, I almost get lulled into the snare, and then I remember the rabbits in Watership Down. The ones who knew they could be killed next, but life was so comfortable that they stayed, and wrote sad poems about “the shining wire”, accepting their fate with an eerie resignation.
There is something that revolts within me when I think about using and consuming AI. I will not use it to write my reports! I will not follow accounts who use it! I will steel myself and carry on, like that duck. And you, Tara! Onward we chaaaarge! Pick up thine sword!
Ok I’m getting carried away, but I’ve been following a few accounts where they use old English and it’s crept into me a bit! As always, thank you for your writing - your voice is so important to so many of us. I’m wishing you a blessed Saturday. Xx
I'm with you Tara. I hate what I see with my grands and many adults around me with their phones and computers more important than the people in their lives. And, yes, AI is garbage in and garbage out. I fight with it off and on as it privileges "the experts" in its first pass at something asked. So, often, its responses to questions are not correct. No heart. No feelings. At 81 this next year, I grieve over where we are now as a culture. I, too, feel like that duck on her rock. As you often do, you sum up my own feelings so beautifully.
I recently left my “dream set up” in Portugal. I'd lived there for over 3 years. Middle of no where. I thought I'd found the mythical bubble to raise my children in. My landlady, who was also my neighbour, was on the same page. Or so I thought. She's the WAPF chapter leader for our area after all.
One of (the many, many, many) reasons I left that house, was this.
My eldest daughter was 7 when we moved in. The little girl next door was 8.
I raise my daughters with zero personal devices.
The little girl next door was given an iPad by her parents for her 9th birthday.
Around 12 months ago, she informed my daughter that, “you aren't my best friend anymore. Chat GPT is.’
I watched the creativity and imagination gradually leave this young girl over the last months. She chats with her damn device around the clock, while her parents deem it “educational” and “necessary to move with the times’.
As my Granddad used to say….”Beam me up Scotty”.
I want to hurl my device into the nearest landfill. And as soon as I work out a way to provide for my children without it, that is exactly what I intend to do.
I started reading this as I poured myself a cup of broth this morning. I was intending to listen to the audio once I got out the door. But I couldn’t stop reading..: as usual you drew me in and then blew me away.
Holy Smokes
I have not used or queried or whatever any chat AI anything… well maybe I have because I have asked google questions before… anyway…. Those paragraphs are horrifying. Truely.
I so appreciate how serious you are, how seriously you take yourself and your time/ your effort/ what you produce.
Thoughtful.
Intentional.
All of us are asking these questions and wondering what the future holds…. How lucky we are to be connected to someone like you who articulates the landscape and the choices so clearly. Humankeeper, absolutely love that. ❤️
I’ll tell you one thing. If I had a little epistle of some kind show up in my mailbox once a month or whatever from Slowdown Farmstead Tara I would skip down to that box with a spring in my step…. And I would relish that arrival like a letter from a dear friend…. Which… is what that would be.
Consider me an advocate for something like that if the day should come where you decide substack isn’t for you.
Me too! Thank you for articulating this so well.
I would love to receive a paper newsletter! I love your writing but I hate reading on my phone 😩
Oh my heavens I absolutely loved this essay! By the end I was cheering and ready to take up the call! You echo my own sentiments about AI. I will join you in being a humankeeper!
Beautifully written Tara. The AI stuff does scare me because it is hard to decipher what is real and what isn't. I don't know about you but I have always been an optimist and have seen the good in things, but AI has turned me into someone cynical and untrusting. I hate that feeling. I would love to sit and talk to you, in person, with someone real and just talk. I miss that, most conversations are now just quick text or memes sent to each other. I appreciate those for what they are but real conversations are needed. If you decide to do a written format in paper, sign me up! Set up a P.O. box and I'll write back. 😊 or next time you visit Virginia, reach out and we can get a coffee or meal. Thanks for your beautiful writings (and art inserts! I love seeing the different artists, many are new to me).
Thank goodness from the depths of my heart and soul for you, Tara, and your human keeping. We need to be human beings more than ever. AI is a wicked, black hole. Everything you have written resounds with what is the most important in life. Thank you, thank you❤️
Yup! Turning toward grounding myself in human things. Feeling into my own humanness and creativity to move forward in the world. Thanks for this special essay! Timely!
Dear Tara, I am so glad you addressed this whole AI issue. “It’s a tool, like everything else!”, “People thought the telephone was evil when it first came to be!”, “It’s amazing for writing report cards!”. These are all things I hear from colleagues, friends and even family. When they say it, I almost get lulled into the snare, and then I remember the rabbits in Watership Down. The ones who knew they could be killed next, but life was so comfortable that they stayed, and wrote sad poems about “the shining wire”, accepting their fate with an eerie resignation.
There is something that revolts within me when I think about using and consuming AI. I will not use it to write my reports! I will not follow accounts who use it! I will steel myself and carry on, like that duck. And you, Tara! Onward we chaaaarge! Pick up thine sword!
Ok I’m getting carried away, but I’ve been following a few accounts where they use old English and it’s crept into me a bit! As always, thank you for your writing - your voice is so important to so many of us. I’m wishing you a blessed Saturday. Xx
I'm with you Tara. I hate what I see with my grands and many adults around me with their phones and computers more important than the people in their lives. And, yes, AI is garbage in and garbage out. I fight with it off and on as it privileges "the experts" in its first pass at something asked. So, often, its responses to questions are not correct. No heart. No feelings. At 81 this next year, I grieve over where we are now as a culture. I, too, feel like that duck on her rock. As you often do, you sum up my own feelings so beautifully.