It's more than just AI replacing human voices; the writing world seems to have shifted from experimentation to conformity. media update's Venelize de Lange considers whether readability and optimisation are eroding originality.
Reading is declining — that's hardly news. Although reading is a lot more accessible than it was a few hundred years ago, fewer and fewer people gravitate toward the novel for entertainment, opting instead for digital streaming platforms, gaming or social media.
That doesn't mean that the written word has completely disappeared due to a lack of interest. In fact, people still consume written content through digital platforms, including online news, blogs and newsletters, and to a lesser extent, print.
If anything, we are surrounded by more text than ever, but what that text looks like and how it is generated and distributed is of greater concern.
Digital technologies and artificial intelligence are changing our relationship with text — it encourages shorter, more disjointed forms of reading over the sustained attention that complex literature and longer form writing insists upon. Artificial intelligence also floods the internet, creating more uniform content over multiple platforms.
At the same time, modern media rewards writing that is easy to read, instantly shareable and easily falls within algorithmic profiles for discoverability. In doing so, it may unintentionally discourage complexity and stylistic experimentation, making writing more uniform and working against original ideation and creative thinking.
As a result, writers adjust their style to accommodate modern reading habits while also taking advantage of the efficiencies these tools offer in an effort to "optimise reach" and "streamline work".
This homogenisation of modern writing naturally leads to the question of whether creativity in written form is altogether disappearing, but research points to a more complex answer. Creativity thrives through curiosity, diverse experiences and environments that encourage exploration. However, creative thinking is also strengthened through continual learning and exposure to new ideas — it is not a finite resource.
So, if modern platforms are incentivising predictable formats or styles, then writers are simply responding to the stimuli in their environment.
While language change is inevitable, and whether its evolution leads to richer forms of expression or uniform writing, will depend on the choices writers make when using the technology at their beck and call. In the pursuit of readable and discoverable content, it will be more important than ever not to lose the distinctive voices and the creative risk-taking that make writing the art it is.
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*Image courtesy of Canva
**Information sourced from The NewYorker, The John Hopkins News-Letter, SciePublish and Medium