Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I’m going to admit something I wouldn’t normally say as a matter of public record— as a journalist I often write what I wish I could say in my head as I type the acceptable article. I realize that what I want to say is what a lot of ordinary people type in their social media or blog posts, but what I want to say remains relegated to conversations with close friends who value or at least understand my opinions.

I wonder if other people approached information credibility and considered what they say in public as carefully as a (good) journalist does how the world would change. We are now more-than-a-generation deep into an era when Google (not even an internet search but a branded service) answers most of our questions. Libraries feel obsolete (but let me tell you they are NOT). And the idea of talking to someone highly educated and specialized within a topic seems alien.

The advances in AI that scare me most are not the threat these developments pose to artists and writers or even how they can now direct our social and intra-personal interactions, but the contribution they make to “dumbing down” our collective minds. I see too many people believe AI-derived information and answers. Whatever ability we had, as a society, for critical thinking and fact-checking evaporates more every day.

On the personal interaction front, I also must ask— if people shared information and opinions as cautiously and deliberately as a (again, good) journalist pursuing the betterment of society, and if politicians followed the path of journalistic integrity and did not behave like high power advertising firms caring only about their personal agendas, maybe we would all learn something about active listening, respecting others, and when we should repeat things and when we should not.