It’s no surprise that amid an era of infinite accessibility to the online world, the average internet user spends more than six hours on the internet every day.
We cannot deny that the internet is a helpful utility with a sea of information and endless networks of communication. In a way, the internet works as our own personal assistant, and it is instrumental to our daily lives.
We interact with our screens more than some of us would like to admit. One of our most compulsive habits is the way in which we refer to the internet to aid our writing.
When we write a paper for a class, edit a resume or send an email, we work hand-in-hand with our devices because they provide us with the most advanced shortcuts, examples and tips.
Our dependence on the internet is a support system: we are tied to it, relying on its help to carry out the routine tasks we face.
The electronic platforms we use for writing, such as Pages or Microsoft Word, are constantly modifying the ways in which we form sentences through word processor systems to produce the highest quality of writing.
These programs correct our mistakes and offer infinite diction alternatives in such high-speed fashions that we cannot actually process the adjustments made or learn from our errors. Rather than teaching us how to become better writers, these systems decrease our ability to write autonomously and deepen our reliance on the internet’s services.
For most of us, this is not something we think to complain about. These resources are extremely valuable and help us curate our writing so that it best reflects the messages we are trying to express.
So, the internet supplies us with all the tools we need to enhance our writing. The important question is: to what extent is our dependence on technology hurting our ability to write authentically?
Referring to the internet to enhance our personal dictionary is a common and familiar behavior, but doing so can severely influence the capacity to which we express our individual voice.
The underlying issue resides in whether there is anything we produce that can be considered entirely original. If we extract so much of what we write from the support of the internet — consulting similar models of what has already been written in the internet’s boundless archive — how can we truly distinguish what is our own?
By way of all the Google searches, suggested synonyms, countless journals of research and background knowledge, we cut corners to produce material in the fastest way possible. In the process, we lose sight of our creativity as writers.
The only solution that comes to mind as a way to remedy this issue is living without the aid of the internet, which, of course, means reversing time and existing in an offline world.
However, we can still practice exercising our individual voice as writers by writing more often on paper, which will allow us to project our thoughts and ideas in an original way that manifests our autonomy and imagination.
Along with this, we should build the habit of turning toward the wisdom of books and invest in actual reading rather than skimming online articles for our desired information. Writing with a pen and paper — although less practical in our digital age — allows a writer to generate material based completely on the content of their own mind.
This way, we can pull phrases from the vocabulary in our heads and select word choices that align with our individual styles as writers. We can build our minds’ personal encyclopedias while using the internet to add to it, rather than having it be our sole provider of material.
This practice can elevate our writing skills and help us develop a stronger sense of personal knowledge.
Our incessant and addictive interaction with the internet when writing steers focus away from originality — a dilemma every writer who wants to preserve their individuality should be conscious of. In a buzzing world of boundless ideas, we should never jeopardize our authenticity.
