Technology

I know I know there are a lot of people that think technology sucks blah blah blah. I think it’s great and I love seeing how it has developed over the years and am excited to see the next iteration. After all, for writers it probably started with figures in the dirt, paintings on the wall, maybe etched into stone with a chisel, papyrus, quill and ink, pen, typewriter, keyboard and now we can even do voice to text.

What does that mean? It means if you can talk, you can be a writer. Voice to text removed the obstacles of typing and hand handwriting. Note: i didn’t say that just because you can do voice to text means you’re a good writer. Sorry buddy, you still gotta put effort into that.

That being said, it’s now easier and with more practice, you can be better each time. You can even be a horrible speller and AI or grammar check will give you suggestions or fix it for you. You know what technology cannot do yet?

It’s unable to write without a prompt. Even if I gave it the title “technology,” without a clear direction, it won’t know to write me an article for Substack. (I did drop just the word “technology” into ChatGPT, copilot and Gemini as an experiment and surprisingly, they did give me significantly more than I thought they would but not what I wanted.)

My point is as a writer and as technology changes and expands or in any field, you gotta keep up with the changes. The best thing is to be able to use those changes to your advantage. Personally I enjoy not having to lug a notebook or laptop around just to write.

I can pull out… my phone at any moment and start writing. Evidence: I am currently on a Southwest flight headed back to Houston and because the plane has wifi, I am able to write and publish without my feet even touching the earth.

Even I used to hate the days of writing by hand and having to transcribe it to a screen but even with some technology, I can write it by hand and it will turn it into typography. Simple.

You don’t have to like technology. You don’t even have to use it to your advantage. But don’t get mad when the world leaves you behind because it evolved and you didn’t. That my friend, is the simplest explanation of natural selection and evolution without the use of actual animals. Just think about it. You’re welcome and I’ll see you next time. :)

ps I love you in case no one told you today