Does anyone else feel like social media has devolved into an incessant stream of AI-generated slop? You can spot 'em a mile away... the "ALL CAPS AND ITALICIZED TITLES!", emojis-for-bullets 🎯,💡, ✅,🚀, weirdly short sentences that are easily read on a smart phone, and the same, predictable call to action - "What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments below! 👇".
The problem with all these missives is that they lack any sort of personality. They all sound exactly the same: like Claude wrote them. Or Gemini. Or ChatGPT. Or, God forbid, Grok. And it makes me wonder if people put any effort whatsoever into writing anymore or if they simply have a weekly automation that prompts their agent to "draft an engaging post about [insert subject matter here] for LinkedIn".
I remember back in the day (yes, I'm very much old enough to use that phrase) when I would write blog posts for my personal passion — environmental conservation. When I started blogging in 2007, I would spend hours drafting my posts. Back then, there was no AI available to conjure thoughts out of thin air (or rather, to reconstruct thoughts from what has already been thunked). I had to use the ol' noodle to build a cogent argument for why you should care about composting. I had to use my powers of perception and empathy to turn words into feelings that would, hopefully, elicit a visceral response to my CTA.
My voice was my own — sometimes that was a good thing, sometimes it got me into trouble. But always it was authentically mine.
Eventually though, I learned that relatability matters. I didn't want to turn folks off by crude language or poor construct when my message was important. So I began asking others — my sisters, my husband, my mother — to proofread my work before clicking "Publish". That can be a difficult thing to do — to hand hours of your hard work over to someone and ask them to rip it apart. Even if it is in service of creating a better final product. And so, to avoid becoming too attached to my literary "babies", I would always refer to them as "Shitty First Drafts" or "SFDs" for short. (Thank you, Anne Lamott!)
Because when you write enough you learn an immutable truth: your first draft is always going to be kinda shitty. You are putting words to paper. The structure is wonky, your thoughts wander, you leave gaping holes in your sentences because your fingers don't type as fast as the ideas are generated. If you can accept that the first draft is an SFD, it allows you to receive feedback and embrace the discomfort that is inherent in an honest critique. Because in the end you know it will make your writing stronger, your voice louder, your message more coherent.
I don't write environmental posts anymore, but I have picked up blogging again recently. And I am fortunate enough to have a new generation of tools in my arsenal. Tools like an online thesaurus, Grammarly, and yes, artificial intelligence. I'm not ashamed to admit that I run my SFD through AI and ask for feedback. The tool is great at flagging run-on sentences or identifying malapropisms. But I don't let AI draft the piece — because if I did, I wouldn't be giving you my thoughts — I'd be regurgitating what has been said by others before me. And I don't deferentially incorporate all of the edits because I would 100% lose the voice that makes my writing sound like me.
So my plea to you is this: Do Not Abandon Crafting That Shitty First Draft.
I don't care what your AI agent thinks — I want to know what you think. Give me your rough edges, your strong opinions, your actual, original, unfiltered IDEAS. That is what I want to hear. And I want to hear it in your voice — in all its messy, imperfect, and very much human glory. Lay it on me. Use regional dialect. Make up words. Be inappropriate. Cuss. Trust me, none of those things will ever offend me as much as auto-posting clanker twaddle online and declaring it "your most recent thoughts on…"
And no, Claude, for the millionth time, I do not want you to soften my tone.