sloppy = evolving

I AM AWARE AI IS SMARTER, AND IT CAN GIVE YOU ANSWERS IN MILLIONTH SECONDS, BUT HEAR ME OUT.PLEASE.(haha sorry for the clickbait or whatever we call it)

I understand that AI is really integrated, and it is one of the biggest things that helps us do things, i.e., finish homework or choose the type of university you're supposed to attend because you were just a kid with no direction. It was much better before because, a few years ago my brother ( age 22) would have gone through a lot of reviews of his choices for college and he might have gone through reddit pages where the students of the university would actively diss the college and tell their juniors that theyve made the wrong choice, and he might've done his research via his social circle which might include his family friends or any people he met in his highschool. 

Contrasting that, when I was supposed to decide which college I would attend (now 19), which was in 2024, all I did was have a very long conversation with an AI bot, which probably just pretended to understand me and know me because it was very well trained to do so. I really felt so understood and known, which probably is creepy because it is eod just a structure or a thing which is just made up of 0s and 1s, just like my friend used to say.

For me partiularly, I started understanding how AI is really dumbing me down, and it just started my brain all slimy and sluggish because I started seeing other people and started inculcating the habit of using AI for every other task in my life that needed my critical and cognitive reading skills. 

I also started noticing how my vocabulary and my formation of speech sentences started sounded like prompt answers from ChatGPT, I started thinking more backwardly, even in my debate sessions in my debate club in my university, where I thought, "Oh, maybe what if i think like an ai " or "um what would chatgpt do in a situation like this". And then it just hit me, and I thought, okay ani you're lowkey cooked. 

One of the recent studies from the research paper called "Writing Smarter or Losing Skills? The Impact of AI in Academia" by Shamstabrej Siddiquee, where they did a research on engagement with AI for academic writing showed that a majority, 44%, reported using AI tools on a weekly basis, while 13% indicated daily use, reflecting strong engagement with these technologies 

So, actually what led to this anyways?

AI is purely built to basically perform tasks which requires human intelligence and one of the main reasons why we love using AI is because it is fast and we dont have to sit and brainstorm for ideas or think through the entire task which literally defies or takes away the entire purpose of completing a task Dvelving into the same - whenever we sit and brainstorm ideas for something, we use a notebook and write down things or we open or word doc and type out what I could preasumably do. This causes me inconvenience - the inconvenience of having to use my skills and my potential, which just causes discomfort in my way(or in this context- friction ). But for me, I'm all about friction maxxing in 2026 :]

What is friction maxxing ?

Friction-maxxing is the practice of intentionally choosing less convenient options in daily life to build tolerance for discomfort, resist technology-driven ease, and preserve what proponents describe as meaningful human experiences. As observed, most of us lately view doing the littlest things like buying groceries, even when we're free, as very effortful and very uncomfortable and the bar for effort and hard work keeps lowering day by day because we are accustomed to being spoon-fed for each and every task we were meant to do "normally" just a few years ago 

Friction maxxing is basically choosing to keep that engagement alive.

It looks like:

• writing something yourself before asking AI to refine it
• sitting with confusion instead of immediately resolving it
• doing something manually, even when there’s an easier shortcut

How will friction maxxing help us, and how is assosiateed with the overuse of AI?

To describe in simpler words, every time we choose inconvenience and every time we choose to get uncomfortable, we tend to change (might not be tremendous but in the tiniest ways possible ) because we experience something new or we get exposured to something new. 

For example: Im trying to write a paper or an article on my favourite character in recent times , so normally what I'd do when Im a lazy potato is just to prompt the same in ChatGPT, saying"write a paper on the charachter Clementine Kruczynski from the movie Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless mind ". However if I was choosing to "friction maxx" I would do a complete charachter analysis on her and understand why I love her and what part of me resonates with her, which explains my attachment to the fictional character and probably conclude with the amount of love and how much she makes me feel so understood and seen.

"bad human writing is better than ai writing"

Addressing the quote, I do agree that even if there is a little kid out there who is trying to write without using any of the fancy words or with complicated jargon is much MUCH better than a middle school kid out there who is prompting the same, while watching cartoon.

But why hate on AI so much?

The whole narrative of hating AI or chatbots is because it is trained to perform human-like activities that resemble us, humans. We are made up of a lot of emotions like love, guilt, rage, sorrow and literally a million other things which just cannot be "replaced". Whenever we ask an AI bot to correspond with us emotionally or ask it to be human-like, it is just a large language module which was just meant to do it. 

What to do now? 

Honestly, for me especially since Im from a technical degree Im just bound to use AI but I refuse to use AI creatively and artistically because I dont want to, I dont mind going through a hundreds of reference pages or bibliographies in research papers or watch a lot of youtube videos for the same - because Im capapble of doing it , even if my research methodology is rigged or full of potholes I'll just learn to be better because I can and you can too:)

Because at the end of the day, the goal isn’t just to get things done.

References/Things which inspired me to write this XD 

-https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=first-class

-https://trfjournal.cdfaindia.org/index.php/trfjournal/en/article/view/33

-https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260227-can-friction-maxxing-fix-your-focus

-https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-025-02847-0

- https://youraislopbores.me/

-https://open.spotify.com/track/0kyCBfVUUG0pzk2MBF0h7R

-https://youtu.be/ECWpPKzN5I0

Note:

ALL THE EM DASHES ARE MINE. THEY ' RE NOT GENERATED. I REPEAT THEY.ARE.NOT.GENERATED

This is purely written from my perspective ( a 19-year-old student ). I think the article could be structured better, but please do let me know if you have any suggestions and opinions on the same 

Thats enough ani in agony for today

byeyeye<3

Crisis , Chilling , Carefree and Capitalism.

Even as a girl in primary school, I was aware that money came with choices,abundance, opportunities, and a million alternatives. The world has always favoured and valued the rich. I was privileged enough to have a roof over my head, a loving and supportive family, and the kindest people in my inner circle. But as I became more self-aware, I started associating money with something else: helplessness, powerlessness, and a lack of control over my own life.

Before we get into that, let’s understand how our modern-day economy works. I’m a commerce student, and this is my takeaway: our economy is capitalist.

What is capitalism, actually?
According to Adam Smith, the 18th-century philosopher and “father of modern economics”:

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”

Which basically means: people act in self-interest. And capitalism runs on that idea.

As a teenager in this system, how does it affect me?
In capitalism, even education is treated like a product—not a basic right. It’s become a market where students are the customers, and success is measured in economic value. The best schools, the top universities those always benefit the wealthy. Meanwhile, underfunded schools and struggling students are left behind, even if they’re working ten times as hard.

And even after all the saving, hustling, investing, workaholism, and sacrifice, many of us stay stuck in the same place—because there’s always someone with more generational wealth. It’s not just burnout. It’s internalised capitalism.

What is internalised capitalism?
It’s when society’s obsession with productivity and money quietly becomes your own. It’s when:

• You feel guilty for taking breaks

• You think you should always be “doing something”

• You find it hard to rest or stop overthinking

• You tie your worth to how much you get done

• You feel shame when you don’t meet certain “standards”

• You constantly seek validation and feel like nothing is ever enough

• You can’t stop, slow down, or take time off without feeling like you’re failing

And humans suffer in multifarious ways. Much of this suffering, even in its extreme forms, can turn out to be functional if we care to look deeply enough: it may be a call to change, or the organism’s protest against what is harming us or holding us back, or the inevitable outcome of waking up psychologically. Such functional suffering, in my experience, is highly liable to become “dysfunctional” if it is misunderstood or mistreated or wrongly pathologized/stigmatized.

Honestly? These aren’t just personality quirks or “bad habits.” These are symptoms of the world we live in. This system. And it’s not your fault.

We’re told we can’t complain because we have it “better than others.” But we’re all drowning quietly under a system that only values us when we produce, when we profit, when we succeed on their terms.

So what now?
You don’t need to “earn” rest. You don’t need to monetize every hobby. You are not lazy for needing peace. You are not broken for feeling exhausted. And when things feel like too much, I do the things that make me feel like myself again. I crochet. I read. I make playlists for people I love. I go on long walks. I talk to someone I trust (I promise they are there to help you and get you through the rough patch). I journal, or just rant on paper. I write for myself.

Basically: I go out and touch some grass.

End of the day, even if you have very little control over it, just try to let go instead of holding on so tightly because sometimes change itself means adapting to it and growing with it, instead of resenting it so much.

Thanks for reading. Ani in agony today. I’m a beginner writer, so let me know if you have any feedback. Byee <3

Reference- 

 - https://asjp.cerist.dz/index.php/en/article/258871

- https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Back-to-Basics/Capitalism

- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-biology-of-human-nature/202309/how-capitalism-is-making-us-sick?utm_

- https://embraceourcalling.com/book-review-the-end-of-burnout-jonathan-malesic/?utm_source

Is Media there to Aware You or Scare You?

Media's sole reason to exist is to inform, educate, and empower all kinds of people. It's commonplace to assert that public communication lies at the heart of the democratic process  that citizens require equal access to sources of information and equal opportunities to participate in the debates from which political decisions rightly flow. Electronic culture permits a different interpretation of this gap.

As for now, in my blog, I will be focusing completely on:

• Mass media – the institutions and methods of reaching a large audience

• Broadcast media – communications delivered over mass electronic communication networks

• News media – mass media focused on communicating news

• Published media – any media made available to the public

According to UNESCO, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information. Its core purpose is to reach out to a wide audience  nationally and globally and it must be made simple enough to be understood by all kinds of citizens.Whether it's a dhobi wala listening to it while working or a CEO with a double degree watching news during dinner, media should cater to everyone equally.

As a viewer myself, my opinions and my thought process are sometimes derived from the media I consume. Especially for our generation, it is a part of our everyday life, and we rely on it completely for our current affairs and happenings so that we stay well-informed about our surroundings . But situations or instances like these might also make us more panic-stricken, anxious, or stressed  causing a huge fall in our productivity, which eventually affects the country’s productivity.

However, mass media companies these days totally rely on yellow journalism and sensationalism to boost their TRPs and increase their viewer base.

Currently, with the ongoing Indo-Pak conflict, advertisers and channels are exploiting the situation, causing panic and scaring people into believing that their security is in danger.

Mass media can act as both: a source of information and a source of fear.

This isn’t about the public being naive. In fact, some of the poorest citizens understand democracy best they file applications using the Right to Information Act, petition courts, and invoke the Constitution. Because of this, people are unable to differentiate between false information and irrelevant information.

To overcome this, we must make our citizens media literate.

What is Media Literacy?

Media literacy builds upon traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. It empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators, and active citizens. Media literacy is the ability to comprehend and critique a variety of forms of communication. It allows you to identify the influence and meaning behind media messages.

How to Become Media Literate?

Ask yourself:

• Who authored this?
  It could be an individual, a representative of a corporation, a political pundit, an artist, an activist, etc., and they likely have their own opinion on the subject.

• Why was this created?
  The intent may be to persuade (an op-ed or an ad), to inform (a news story or how-to article), or to entertain (a meme or tweet).

• Is it credible?
  Look for direct evidence. Support for arguments can include stats, quotes, infographics, or research from trusted sources.

• Is it biased?
  Watch out for one-sided stories that ignore opposing views. Cross-check with multiple sources to develop a well-rounded opinion.

Sources I Use:

• Inshorts

• Ground News

• BBC News

• CNN IBN

At the end of the day, people behind mass media are citizens from our own society.

It’s up to us if we’ll let it fuel our knowledge — or let it fear us.

That’s it, ani in agony for today.
If you have anything in mind, feel free to let me know <3

Byeyee

Reference-

- https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003572923-19/culture-media-ideological-effect-stuart-hall

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_communication

-The Information Society Reader  ByZizi Papacharissi

- https://sendpulse.com/support/glossary/mass-media