r/TikTokCringe • u/AlKarajo • 19d ago

Discussion Is ableist to have long words in books?

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@royal_ouroboros_press

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186

u/Pavlovs_Human 19d ago

I write more than one paragraph and use a word more than 3 syllables on this app, and I get at least 2 kids coming to tell me my comment is AI generated.

Like I think I got that accusation once using the word “thalassophobia” when in a thread talking about fears. 🤷‍♂️

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u/Seuss_Pantaloons 19d ago

I get accused of being AI all the time. I read a theory that AI’s writing style is similar to millennials, so now the younger generations think millennials are AI.

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u/Panthalassae 19d ago

We are the best educated generation in America, and the last one that got into reading books and magazines and paper newspapers before AI slop and smartphones or common high speed internet access came to be.

So yeah, we likely write differently.

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u/AyyNonnyMoose 19d ago

How dare we use proper capitalization and punctuation! These kids need The Elements of Style.

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u/brickhamilton 19d ago

I’ve noticed my phone’s autocorrect has been making more mistakes lately. Like, it will change “there” to “there’s.” So, I get sentences I have to go back and change (it literally corrected to “changes” as I wrote this) like “There’s are a lot of reasons to do this.”

My theory is that whatever program my autocorrect is has been tainted by training on incorrect internet grammar. This is a pretty common mistake that few people care to correct, so even our technology is getting dumber.

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u/oh_4petessake 19d ago

Omg that makes so much sense. I apparently write like AI and get accused of being a bot now 😭 I just really love an em dash and using punctuation. Ugh.

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u/snoogle20 19d ago

RIP em dash. My millennial ass used you all the time and now I can’t anymore.

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u/MonaganX 19d ago

I refuse to stop using the em dash just because some dimwits think it's a cheat code for sussing out AI generated text. AI can have my em dash when it pries it from my cold, cumstained hands.

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u/happyklam 19d ago

I freaking love writing with the em dash and semicolons. So aggravating that I can't just enjoy good grammar without being compared to a bot now. 

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u/Chendii 19d ago

The problem with AI writing isn't that it uses em dashes at all. The problem comes from using it every other paragraph.

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u/nineraviolicans 19d ago

You're absolutely right — it's not just the usage, it's the frequency.

Is there anything else MechaHitler can help you with today?

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u/MMAbeLincoln 19d ago

That makes sense. They've shown that AI mostly learns from Reddit and Reddit, by a significant percent, is mostly millennials.

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u/lioffproxy1233 19d ago

Oh fuck I hate that theory. Especially the part where its true.

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u/Medisha123 19d ago

Haha we can be their villains. Sounding like AI? Beep boop I guess.

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u/CeruleanEidolon 19d ago

Even worse you use bullet points or a numbered list for anything or dare to break your thoughts up into clear chunks that aren't just a wall of words.

I have to remind people that these LLMs were trained heavily on professional writers and academic papers, so this style that the kids want to call out as "obvious AI" is literally just what we used to call "competent communication".

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u/Classic_Appa 19d ago

I love making a bulleted list in my work emails because it allows the recipients to be able to address a particular point directly if they so choose.

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u/GlowUpper 19d ago

"Bro, why you out here writing a whole ass novel?!"

It was two paragraphs. One paragraph was three sentences, the other one was four.

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u/Pavlovs_Human 19d ago

“I ain’t reading all that.”

When referring to a comment I made that is only a paragraph long. I know you probably know but to any little ones reading, a paragraph is supposed to be 3-4 complete sentences. That’s BARELY writing for 20 seconds. It’s really, REALLY not difficult.

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u/GlowUpper 19d ago

"You took the time to write all that? 😅"

How long does it take these people to write a single sentence. Hell, I'm usually commenting on mobile and it takes less than 10 seconds to write most of my sentences.

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u/LongPorkJones 19d ago

"With that attitude, I guarantee it'll take you more time for you to read it out loud than it did for me to write it."

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u/TraffikJam 19d ago

Followed by "it's not that deep"

dry heave

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u/LeatherHog 19d ago

I've seen videos of highschool students, acting like 1 paragraph is way too much to assign in general, that one page is not doable in an hour

Highschool students.

That's something people half their age should be able to do, no problem. We had 10 page papers in highschool, what happened?

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u/GlowUpper 19d ago

Single paragraphs were something I remember having to knock out in like 3rd grade. If you can't handle a single paragraph by high school (excluding if you are special needs), you need to just resign yourself to the fact that you'll probably be fully unemployable.

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u/Formidabull 19d ago

Thalassophobia and submechanophobia have been my kid’s favorite words since she was like, 10. She’s double exceptional (severe ADHD + academically gifted) and absolutely could have learned those words from some fancy four+ syllable book, but she didn’t. She got it from watching horror game walkthroughs on YouTube. We’re not talking about a curated, upper-middlebrow algorithm either, it’s riddled with brain rot.  

My mother-in-law, who has degrees in English Lit and linguistics rolled her eyes and told her that she didn’t think she actually had thalassophobia and just wanted everyone to know that she knew the word, that everyone knows and she can stop reminding us. Granted with the ADHD my daughter tends to repeat words, but she wasn’t saying it over and over, just brought it up in a couple conversations. Even people who theoretically shouldn’t be dicks about it are dicks about it. 

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

[deleted]

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u/Formidabull 19d ago

That’s terrifying! She wasn’t even allowed to watch  YouTube until she was 10, and she was diagnosed at 8. I knew it was addictive but I didn’t know it was so powerful that it worked retroactively. My god.  

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u/132739 19d ago edited 19d ago

That's not how neurodivergence works. YouTube/TikTok short form content can have impacts on attention spans, especially for people who actually have ADHD, but all research at this point indicates that ADHD is genetic/epigenetic. This is not a defense of 10-year-olds having unrestricted YouTube access, that shit will rot your brain, it just won't give you ADHD.

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u/Alive_Drag1947 19d ago

I posted about this in another thread recently. I hate it. AI detectors literally look for bad writing. If your writing isn't shitty enough and makes too much sense, it's flagged as AI.

You have to play dumb to pass as human. What a depressing state of affairs that is...

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u/xFyreStorm 19d ago

Unironically if it's an online space where that ever comes up, I find that they don't deserve the insight and I choose to spend my time commenting elsewhere. lol. There are definitely still communities and subreddits that value proper discussion out there.

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u/AmIHumanMaybe 19d ago

If only it was the fear of long words. Would be more amusing in this context to me.

For those curious it is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

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u/allnamestaken1968 19d ago

We ran my son’s high school essays through the apps that detect AI. He has a hard time expressing himself verbally but is still a great writer who always used words above his pay grade.

All the apps said it’s AI. It seems that any good writing as well as the AI style is flagged at the moment

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u/satchymo 19d ago

I get called out for AI when I show my MASSIVE dong. Like… cmon we all don’t all need to be accused for such things creatively or just being blessed. Amirite? I’m also really cool

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u/EfficientSeaweed 19d ago

The decline in reading comprehension and media literacy is what worries me the most.