Unlike a lot of students my age, I didn’t grow up using ChatGPT. I was homeschooled (that’ll be an entirely separate article one day), which meant that I’d better have had everything memorized or be able to access the resources. Nowadays, when I have to write papers, I automatically find other ways to access information—and use my mind to come up with ideas.
See, my mom was my primary teacher growing up. She tried to prevent us from using screens when we didn’t have to. This obviously included typing things out. I would almost always hand-write my book reports and other papers. This might sound crazy and inconvenient, but first, I wasn’t out there writing five-page essays in 4th grade (or in middle school at all; quality over quantity), and second, I’m so glad that’s what I had growing up. To this day, I still prefer taking handwritten notes over digital and love writing in cursive.
On top of those writing habits, I hadn’t even heard of AI usage until 8th grade. Once I began high school, it was apparent that ChatGPT became a common source for other students. Because I was never “allowed” to use it (I probably could have, if I wasn’t writing everything by hand!), I never learned to rely on it. Honestly, looking back, that was the best thing that could have happened, because now I get to USE my brain for assignments, instead of typing into my laptop “hey, can you write me a 400-word article?”
Of course, I’m not saying other students at St. Bonaventure rely on ChatGPT for everything; I know my classmates do work themselves. All I’m saying is that I don’t prefer to use AI when I don’t have to. I do use ChatGPT when appropriate, like when my Introduction to Bonaventure professor allows us to. Or, when I am genuinely stuck with some concept (like in a math problem), I might look ask Chat to create some practice problems—not copying and pasting my actual homework. Additionally, with many papers, it is encouraged to use resources, and those are often what ChatGPT uses to answer your questions, anyway! So why not use the original source and cite it?
Actually putting the effort into assignments and other such things is much, much more rewarding than letting someone or something else do your work for you. Besides, there isn’t any stress about “getting caught” because I know professors check papers. Anyway, if you’re really trying to get a degree and even go on to grad school, ChatGPT isn’t going to help you understand what you’re learning if you’re not doing it yourself. So that’s why I don’t like using it, and learning is fun, even if it’s tedious sometimes.