I am a Gen Z university student. The ChatGPT got boom when I was in 12th grade and I have been using ChatGPT, Gemini and Deepseek since then. I am starting to notice that now I cannot do searching anymore. I literally cannot do anything on my own like coding, learning something, fact checking, doing my assignments. I even become so reliant on it that I sometime even ask it what food should I eat, what exercises I should do. Sometimes, I "talk" with ChatGPT more than real human beings, maybe cuz I somehow end up having a bad experience or not so fulfilling experience with people. I have to use AI again and again for the same question, e.g., I asked a question today, I got the answer. If I encountered that question later again, I would not know the answer and have to go to AI for solution. What to do now? How to get out of this dependence on AI?

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[–] 37 points 1 day ago (1 child)

That's a great question. I tease, but first step is realising the problem and you've done that. Much harder is acting on it.

The truth is nobody really knows. It's new. Addiction to it is also new as is the research showing its deleterious effects on the brain.

If I was looking for somewhere to start by trying to read a book a every week or two. Alternate between appealing fiction and an important topic. If you have readings set by your educational institution - do those instead. Reading and digesting plaintext information works a lot of your brain and doesn't come with any immediate answers to questions, it will help you build your patience back.

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Trying to do that and yeah, I want to read as much as I can before these techbros end up destroying all the books that we have right now.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago*

    Also, libraries. Local and school. Your librarians are information brokers. Their job is to find the shit you want and may not even be sure exists, but they'll fuckin' find it.

    Even short novellas or whatever (Murderbot is crazy popular and they're like 120 pages); length don't count for shit, just read. Just get the momentum going, find a genre and/or author you like, read and keep at it.

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