laziness Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

The antidote to our pre assignment submission anxiety has been discovered in our increasing reliance on AI tools and real time chatbots. The contemporary scenario of everything being fast-paced continues to alienate people from critical creative skills, Artificial Intelligence compounds the menace at hand.

Gone are the days when young students would sit with their parents, and draft, and then redraft scripts for the speech for their morning assembly. Be it a declamation, or a debate, or an MUN, ready-made material is made available at everyone’s disposal. Research papers requiring several weeks worth of research can now be complied in a few hours altogether. Extremism has been witnessed to the extent that birthday wishes, congratulatory messages – are all being composed, start to end, by AI tools. This lethargic approach is breeding a generation of individuals with stunted innovation, depreciating creativity and sluggish habits. The justification provided for this shift in the nature of retrieving information is the growing competition, and the need to save up time and expend it on ‘more important’ things. Conformists, in the name of academic students will be produced, destined and dedicated to lead a mundane life plagued by the race of placements and abnormally competitive exams. The pressure from these takes away any remnant will to indulge in anything remotely creative.

Heavy dependence on AI for not just academia, but absolutely anything is churning our individuals depleted of the critical ability to, bereft of perspective. Informative is directly consumed from what is vomited out by AI tools without the bare minimum efforts to relook things. People need to realize that Open AI tools are meant to make one’s work easier, not do one’s whole work. AI bots lack the basic human intelligentsia to produce the kind of work us individuals can. Majority of the output is highly generic, and vastly derivative of the already existing information. No new thought, no new ideas, personal anecdotes comprise a part of the output generated.

One thing guaranteed is the fact that AI can never replace humans, or match the potential of human creativity. It will never kill creative roles, but has a disgustingly high propensity to severely damage the potential of creativity by making humans increasingly dependent. These tendencies also pose a grave threat to the genuine and honest appreciation of real art. With AI sites, capable of producing summaries of entire books, seminal research pieces, stellar pedagogical specimens, one fails to appreciate the artistic nuances and the rigorous research of a creative piece. There is a looming danger of a possible deterioration of the spirit of art appreciation.

Jane Austen didn’t write “Pride and Prejudice” in a hurry, Amrita Pritam didn’t draw inspiration from summaries of anthologies of Sheikh Farid, Shah Husain, Waris Shah, Hasham. Without the inner burning desire to create and introspect, Van Gogh’s melancholic “The Starry Night” would have never existed. Creativity is God’s gift to very few people, don’t let the abundance inside you deplete by giving into the lures of mundanity and convenience.

Image Credits: BYJUs

Rubani Sandhu

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Last month, I struck the following deal with myself: Let go and give in to the unavoidable October festivities, only to come back in full form and study hard from day one of November. But half of November was already over and my progress graph is a terrifying horizontal line. I didn’t study then, and I am unable to study now. The only thing that has changed over the course of time (last week of October and first week of November) is my enemy. While previously, I was battling the ‘levity’ induced by the grand festival of Diwali, now, I am struggling to keep my productivity high against the laziness-inducing ‘winter cold’.

But with less time on my hands to prepare for the semester exams, it’s time I pulled up my socks (to keep the cold away, too?) and got down to business.

After a lot of thought and research, I’ve put together the following strategy to boost my efficiency and effectiveness and tackle the present evil aka ‘winter cold’ that is thwarting all my attempts at studying:

1. Wake up early and exercise
The hardest thing to do during the winter is to pull yourself out of the warm blanket and get to work. But if you have a morning exercise regime scheduled, you can not only get a head start to your day, but also have the sweat you work up in the process keep you warm and enthused through the day!

2. Bathe and dress warm
I know, it is hard shedding layers in the cold. But a bath with warm water, followed by dressing up in snug woollens is the best weapon against this winter cold! Once you’re warm, you can focus on studying and not get affected by the bone-chilling cold around you.

3. Eating small meals at regular intervals
Appetite in winter goes off the roof! Tame your mind and hunger by keeping your tummy content with healthy and frequent snacking. Think nuts and fruits. This way, you’ll concentrate better as you’ll be giving your brain the necessary and regular supply of glucose it needs.

4. Skip the siesta
Afternoon (when it’s warm) is the time when the sun is up at its brightest best. Don’t let this golden period of productivity go by sleeping through it. Instead, study outdoors. And get your eight-hour shut eye by sleeping early at night (when it’s cold).

5. Drink up on warm fluids and beverages
Coffee, green tea, lukewarm water and the works: these are your best buddies through the cold winter nights as they not only keep you feeling pleasantly warm, but also bring about the much need mental stimulation!

With this list, I hope that like me, you feel adequately equipped to fight the ‘winter cold’ and salvage the semester!
All the best!

Kriti Sharma
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Image Credits: blogdailyherald.com

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