shades of blue

Recentlyish, I was asked by a friend if I knew how to get rid of the AI search results on Google, and I told them they could just type -ai in front of their search. They responded by asking me, …and I have to do that every time?

yes

I just thought there might be an easier way.

So this made me start wondering, you know? It made me start wondering: How much easier can it get? How much easier can it get than that, is kind of what I'm wondering.

It also got me thinking about other things that are like…too hard to do. Do you remember that person on Twitter who was mad when their friend asked for a ride to the airport? And then somehow the comment section was split on whether friends should be asking for stuff like that? That honestly made me feel so insane. If something simple like that is outside of the scope of friendship, then what exactly does it mean to be friends with someone? What does a reasonable amount of effort look like to people right now?

Everything (I'm employing hyperbole for effect; don't cancel me) is so, so easy. We probably live in the easiest possible times, like, technologically speaking, in the year 2025. Entertainment is constantly, endlessly accessible. If you want AI to write an essay or answer any question or be your boyfriend, it can do that (if you don't mind it being wrong, like, a lot, and if you also don't mind wasting a crazy amount of water, and if you don't mind a lot of other stuff).

Our food is largely killed for and delivered to us. We pick it up pre-butchered and sometimes even pre-sliced. Triple washed, pre-cooked. If we want, the items can even be brought to our door by someone we can choose to never, ever see. Unless they do that thing where you select contactless delivery and then for some reason they knock and hover at your door and you can look at them googly eying you through your peephole. Then you do have to see them, I guess. But usually, they leave. Generally, you can cut even the trouble of interacting with anyone real out of your life, is how easy everything is.

Even information is super accessible. I think we're in an era where information is both readily available and incorrect, but there it is even so. We are sometimes asked to fact check information to make sure we're consuming true facts instead of fake news. Evaluate the source or whatever. And I think people hate this. In fact, I know people hate this, because I know people who don't understand why we need to fact check, or think fact checking is some type of……liberal ploy to take down the right? Or that fact checking is ableist because some people don’t have even a single spare moment of time or physical or mental ability to like. I don’t know.

One time, someone I know had their bike stolen and said that the person who stole it might need it more than them, so it was like, okay to steal. And no, they wouldn't be filing a police report because ACAB (true btw). But then, to file an insurance claim for the value of the bike, they did in fact need a police report, and being paid was important enough to them to then file a police report, so to heck with that guy who needed the bike more I guess. Sounds a little like they just didn't want to do the work of filing a report and were willing to perform their version of moral uprightness until they found out they wouldn't be rewarded for it. Man, I can't even get into this right now. I'm getting away from my point. We seem to live in a world where things are on easy mode, and having to put in an iota of effort is enough cause to throw a tantrum.

Some people say that they shouldn't have to put in effort because the day-to-day life of the average person is really challenging right now. The mental load of existence takes a huge toll. I totally agree. The job market sucks, unemployment is way up, home ownership is something Gen Z has largely given up on. I mean, I got laid off in January and I've been chilling in an entry level temp position ever since because ten years of experience wasn’t enough for any of the other 97 jobs I applied for. It's awful, and I think discouraged and dejected is how our current world is engineered to make you feel.

I'll be the first girlypop to say that people have the right to feel any type of way about anything, and I'll also be the first one to say that you can do an unknowable multitude of things with those feelings. You can also exempt yourself from almost any type of effort simply by saying you have enough other things to do. You don't have to work on a relationship if you believe the relationship should just be good, effortlessly. You don’t have to Google something you dont understand, and you can in fact get mad when some rando won't explain it to you in a Twitter comment thread. You can get those groceries delivered, girl. Go off; I'm not mad!

What I do believe, though, is that life is meant to be difficult, and it's through facing this difficulty that we're able to create and see positive change. What use is wallowing? Truly, please give me a good answer. We're living in a world that both encourages and rewards inaction. Isn't that reason enough to start doing something about it?

I apologize for saying this, but you're supposed to work for things. I don't mean this in a rise and grind way and I don't mean it in like, a wealth takes work way. It's more in a like, we face the drudgery of chatting with a cashier, of making sure we’re informed about topics we’re passionate about, of interrogating strong, defensive reactions we have to things, and of communicating with people we care about way, and this is important work to do. Participating meaningfully in society is hard and there is a price tag on community, but this is work that is worth doing.

If you don't want to see AI search results, and the search engines are making you see AI search results unless you do this one simple trick every time, then yeah, I think you should do the trick. If u even care. Or don't, if you don't. Do a little work to create a life you enjoy more. Put in the effort you need to live a life that reflects that effort. Right? I don't know. I'm just some guy talking.