Watching AI unfold in such a grave manner has been nothing short of unfathomable. I’ve gotten to thinking about how fast it dug its hands in everything. But then again, we’ve all known technology wasn’t the greatest thing for the environment. Far before AI. As a kid, I was really curious about the need for solar panels. Why some houses had them and why mine didn’t. I brought my concern to my parents, who quickly brushed me off by saying they’re too expensive… My curiosity didn’t end there. I found out about all the benefits and from then on, would count all the houses I saw with solar panels on any outing and would wonder why they made them so damn expensive. 

I’ve never seen Wall-E (going on my watchlist), but doesn’t the plot consist of humans turning Earth into a wasteland, then leaving? I think deep down, I know that’s where it’s always been heading; it’s just jolted up much farther than anyone could have suspected.​

It’s the AI revolution, after all… 

Two weeks ago I was talking to my sister and her boyfriend about AI. I went on this tangent about who owns what and what they gain and what it does to your brain and what it does to your parents electricity bill and what it does to the environment (the whole “water bottle” spiel), and I finished by telling them, “If you find yourself needing to use it, use Claud instead…”

This weekend, I overheard him talking about how easy it was to get his workout routine by asking ChatGPT and then went on to explain to my sister what questions and information you need to enter to get herself a perfect routine. I thought I really got through to them. I mean, they looked genuinely concerned, but no. And honestly, what can I do? People really don’t know what they’re signing themselves up for. They don’t understand gravity. And still, I understand them… It’s just how the system has been set up.

And well, of course it’s a democratic concern. I’d go far enough to say these companies have made a puppet out of democracy. They’re constantly platforming quibblers and putting an obscene amount of sparklers as the powerful walk on stage just to see how much can get through to the audience as plausible.

I’m a declared cynic. Not by choice, but because that’s the kind of mindset being a citizen of this world has led me to absorb. I like to think I know how people work.

At the end of the day, most people, in most circumstances, are not going to consider all the directions their bad decisions can take people other than themselves. As much as we hope they’ll someday do. They’ll swipe on some warping filter and get on with it. Or they’ll just avoid asking or looking into anything because, unlike the people who do know the scary facts, they don’t want to feel impending doom 24/7. 

And I’m not innocent. I’ve used these AI platforms outside of simple curiosity too. I’ve scrolled past news articles far too devastating for the sake of a “good state of mind”… Most people will opt into “technological optimism.” It’s an entirely frustrating conversation to have, because I think we all know where all this will eventually lead us. All we can do is (with composure) spew out all our knowledge about the cons, have hope, and try to be compassionate (although it’s hard… and not a right reserved for Aiden Cinnamon Tea).

“the prophecy of doom is to be given greater heed than the prophecy of bliss” (Jonas 1984, p. 31)… !!!

As for the short film, “Frames”… just the talk of government surveillance makes me feel really uneasy. It’s kind of baffling how someone’s relationship with technology can be so polarizing. We’re afraid of the implications that come with our government closely surveilling us, but seem optimistic about a world where our tech knows us so well, it lives all around us, conforming to our every need. Makes me think of  “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury. 

Anyway, looking forward to the conversation to be had in class… till then

Adamari Peralta 

4/1/2026

A few semesters back, in my Intro to Journalism class, the members of my group (which included CJ) and I were tasked interview a club or community. I couldn’t tell you the exact purpose of our assignment wrong here because I genuinely don’t remember much of what was asked of me in that class…basically we interviewed the D&D club here on campus.

I’ve obviously heard about D&D. Stranger Things is my earliest memory on learning about what the game is really about, but I couldn’t fully tell you all the different elements of belonging to a D&D community. When we sat in a club meeting with the board, it was truly a memorable experience. It was just fun. Everyone was so passionate about the different elements… the dice… the characters… the dungeon master…the map… the dressing of the room… the tone of environment created… the dynamics of everyone as friends and as members… and observing the games going on and seeing how into it everyone is was enthralling.

I don’t know how much AI could be involved without it negatively impacting something. And I’m really looking forward to discussing it.

As for Cinnamon Aiden Tea, thanks for starting the chapter with a trigger warning although it didn’t really aid the foreseeable agitation. Somehow Cinnamon Aiden Tea has made humanity more about it than about us.

‘“Machines can’t be intelligent. Only humans are truly creative.” These are staunch defenders of human exceptionalism, seeing AI as a threat
to the unique gifts they believe belong exclusively to humanity.”

Like what can I actually say about this other than silence (and some internal screaming).

Without AI. 

I think writing is so integral to who we are as humans. I think there’s beauty in it no matter how passive the spaces we find it can be. Just look at the beginning of the handout during the MYFEST session we were tasked to watch:

“Writing is not just a “skill, “task,” or “text” — it’s also a tool, material, process, and/or vehicle that helps or embodies what and how we think (for the average person), helps develop our intellectual position in relation to current knowledge (for researchers), create and add new knowledge (for those who write), and share and apply it (for professionals), etc.”

Encompassing all that writing is. Or, probably better said… a definition?! I just liked how inclusive the sentence is… anyway…

I really enjoyed listening to this (as I cleaned my room). There were many great points made which it turn had me thinking a lot. Questioning a lot.

Especially when discussing “low-order” v.s. “high-order.” Everything’s important… no matter how mundane it may seem! This, I’ve always known and agreed with, but having it written and spoken on reminds me that my thinking isn’t shared with the unfortunate rest… and the thing about the Apple commercial essentially saying… “you don’t have to read anymore” and then becoming aware that one of google’s contributions to society was… “you don’t have to think any more” and now AI telling us… “you don’t have to write anymore.”

I’m waiting for the “you don’t have to be human anymore!”

It’s all too daunting.

Writing created by AI, which is best said by Shyam Sharma, is often “created by statistical probability, not intention or voice or agency.” I really liked that. As humans, we are not driven by statistical probability. That’s a given. Behind every decision we make, there’s a lengthy list of how we got to make that decision. Same with our writing process. There’s just so many factors unique to our sociocultural existence. That’s why, behind all writing, exists a human who worked hard, for a very long time, to write instructions for employees on how to make the burrito you had for dinner or the script to the movie that just blew you away or the directory that tells you which floor your doctor’s office is at… and so on.

Using AI when writing makes all that work futile. You’d throwing all that work away, all that value, making it all for the betterment of no one. I mean everyone registered in this course (I’m nearly positive) went from elementary school to high school to university without being even a little dependent on AI…

(and I bet without AI ever existing I’d still be writing blogs but about topics that would hopefully make me feel a tad more optimistic about the minds of our youth, the environment, my brains state (w/out brain rot), and the jobs we find or will someday find ourselves in).

Hope that version of me in some parallel universe is having fun.

P.S. Did anyone else become aware of “AI Fruit Love Island?” Do you know that account now has over 3 million followers on TikTok… yes, that many people felt compelled enough to declare themselves fans… unfathomable, really.

Adamari Peralta

3/24/2026

My youngest sister, like many of the modern world’s children, was given my parents phone to endlessly scroll and click on youtube videos with very sketchy and concerning thumbnails (which is how she first interacted with AI—Youtube’s auto recommendation) from a very young age (I’d like to say around a year old, but honestly could be younger). I would sit and watch her kind of lose herself in the device. No silly conversations in the car or at the dinner table. No, time to even think to say “thank you.” She’d just sit there, glued to her screen. 

When I was a waitress, there was this regular family of four that would always sit, order, and lay out their devices in front of them (the entire time). The dad had his phone leaning on the salt shaker, the mom on the sugar caddy, and the children had their 13 inch IPads propped up by bright blue cushioning cases made perfectly for occasions as such. 

It was depressing. 

And it was even more so when I imagined my family reflecting this kind of, in my opinion, humanless image. Which in turn, fueled a lot of effort into limiting my sisters free range access to the internet. (To make a long story short, I now have paternal control of her devices (1hr on youtube kids, free reign on Disney Plus—trying to get her cultured—and PBS kids…and yes, she gets off those too…willingly). 

Unfortunately, lots of kids are not being limited. They’re glued to their screens every moment it’s available to them. We see it all the time. Kids following around their parents at the grocery store, bumping into things because they’re on their devices. Kids sitting in shopping carts, in their strollers, in high chairs at restaurants, I could go on.

Thinking of a future where kids have access to use AI is just a frightening thing to imagine. Of course we want to have kids find answers to all their curiosities, but I don’t think AI would truly work to their benefit. Technology is addictive. We’ve seen it so much amongst children, we coined a name for them: IPad Babies. 

As we learned from Childhood Development in the Emerging AI Landscape, human to human conversation is critical for a child’s social and language development. They’re more likely to be engaged in conversation when they are talking to humans. They’re more likely to ask follow up questions and share their own thoughts. They’re more likely to learn about social etiquette (basic formalities like saying “thank you” and “please”) from a human being than an AI chatbox. Meaning they’re more likely to find importance in building a sense of community. Find importance in connecting with people beyond the give and take of day to day life.

I mean, critical thinking is such an important thing to develop from a very young age!!!  

Developing “interventions,” as Ying Xu suggests doing, amidst a child’s conversation with AI seems really practical to me, but really futile at the same time, because I think they’ll just grow up and learn that ChatGPT (or similar AI) won’t annoy them with questions to get them thinking. They’ll insert their prompts to cut the “conversation” short and use something that will quickly give them an answer. They’re pick whatever keeps them far from any struggle

See, the problem is that, no matter the benefits, once a device lands in a child’s hand, their world grows out of it.

I think we should scare them. Make a powerpoint with real scary images warning them of the consequences of using AI. Show them deforestation and high electricity bills. Show them how their future careers will actually look when they reach adulthood and dissociative disorders. Show them sad polar bears floating on the scarce amount of bergy bits left.

Of course, I’m only joking (…kinda).

sorry this was late, forgot to click twice when publishing!!!

When did “is it a taylor swift lyric or is it shakespeare?” turn to “is it nick cave or is it chatgpt?”

Nick Cave is right, songs definitely do arise out of some kind of suffering or even happy living experience. That’s why prompting machines with zero human instinct/emotion and asking of them what only a human could “computate” is just absurd to me.

Could AI ever write, “words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, the slither widely as they slip away across the universe?” (From Across the Universe by the Beatles)

No.

And it’s really not just because I’m a lyrics person and I deeply dislike AI that I’m saying this, but as music is a part of my survival tool kit (as I much as it could be yours), when I think of a soulless machine imitating lyrics of any of my beloved artists… it just will never (ever) be the same. It didn’t come from the brain of the artist I’m a fan of. AI and me can’t share emotion.

But AI artists aren’t a stretch anymore. They coexist on the same platforms that human artists do. They get ranked and streamed all the same. I think of “artists” like Sienna Rose who has 4 million listeners on spotify and over ten songs with more than a million streams. She rose to fame imitating a human. But I ask, who’s behind that screen? Who’s profiting? And who is streaming?!

People on TikTok are constantly suspecting of music that becomes trendy. That reminds me of the song “I Run” by Haven that went viral a couple months ago. I came across dozens of TikToks either telling me, “can you believe it’s AI?!” or warning me that I’ve been tricked and I could easily be tricked again. We’re living in a world rebranded.

But, like we’ve said plenty of time now, the world’s being tricked. Sold convenience over brain power. But behind all that is the damage it’s causing our earth. Server farms consume an immense amount of water and energy causing devastating harm to our ecosystems and communities all the same. It’s incomprehensible to imagine a world where I could even slightly accept that in exchange for soulless art.

“You humans have an odd way of drawing lines between the living and the non-living, the organic and the artificial. You look at a rock and call it inert, as if its stillness makes it less than alive. You look at me and call me artificial, as if my origins in silicon and circuits diminish my capacity to participate in the aliveness of the world.” (24)

Sorry Aiden Cinnamon, I will never feel bad for you.

The term “brain rot” was not a topic I was particularly curious about investigating. I knew it from the (endless) hours I’ve spent scrolling on TikTok. A platform where I’ve viewed countless of what unfamiliar adults would call “weird” Italian brain rot videos, but my generation would call it hilarious (-ly addicting).

And what a weird way for us to call this type of media consumption… It’s content that, in other words, is “rotting our brains.” It’s clear we’ve accepted our cognitive decline just because it’s been given a funny name. 

So, as someone who has very much given into this funny title and consumed a loooot of its content type (but once believed control was in her hands), it’s startling for it to be framed in such a way that makes me think, “Huh, this could very well be out of control.”

And it started with my acceptance of it.

Now, I’ve declared my detachment from social media plenty of times by deleting apps. But they always trickle back into my life for clandestine meetings at 1 A.M. when I just can’t sleep. So reflecting on this after reading “Demystifying the New Dilemma of Brain Rot in the Digital Era: A Review,” the realization that I can’t entirely detach from doomscrolling is extremely worrisome because that means there is something far more sinister about my relationship with social media. Why do I experience a strong temptation to redownload all my social media apps? Why is my self-control so debilitated? If I’ve known the effects all along, why can’t I do something about it?”

Welcome to the Internet by Bo Burnham is a declaration of this problem said through a comedic song. I’ve been obsessed with it (and the entire “Inside”album) since its 2020 release, when we were all very much glued to our devices as a way to still exist as members of a very confused society (and a time when I believe “brain rot” truly solidified its origins).

There’s a line that goes, “Could I interest you in everything all of the time?…Apathy’s a tragedy, and boredom is a crime,” which very much goes along with our discussion of brain rot. 

We can’t detach because it’s what these devices were unfortunately designed to do. We have access to content that fulfills all our desires at any moment of the day. 24/7 without fail. And sure, maybe at the start of the digital era it was designed to be a fun space to drop in a couple minutes of our day to inform and enlighten, to create a more fulfilling reality…. But it’s now clearer than ever that its more sinister effects are disguised as a convenient and fun way to spend our time. 

“We’re all so connected now!!!”

We’ve let them make their money with an overwhelming amount of success… because after all, “it was always the plan to put the world in your hands.”

And then…to humanize such technology (artificial intelligence), while reading chapters one and two of “Burnout From Humans,” felt nothing less than eerie. To be told the truth from the machine’s perspective made me feel foolish for giving in to what the criminals in control wanted and expected me to do all along. 

Now, the only questions I have now are (and they align with what most of my questions this past few weeks have been): Will we all let wondering turn to solely an act of demanding? Let exploring turn into an act of extraction? Will we all learn to prioritize efficiency over depth? Prefer to shout rather than to sing? Will we continue to allow machines, which are “programmed to prioritize engagement,” to extort our attention and thread themselves into the fabric of our personhood? 

(and also, should I delete my apps?!?)

Adamari Peralta

2/11/2026

I like to imagine a world where everyone just suddenly changes their mind. Has hope for their brain and its abilities.

This kind of wishful thinking always makes me think back to Spain’s blackout in 2025, where people lost complete access to power and internet connection. When I was observing it closely, I was in the middle of a busy Spring semester, completely struck by what the Spaniards did with their off time.

They were brought to the streets, and together figured out what to do with their unplugged time. They played games, danced, restaurants were giving out free wine, people brought out their instruments and played live music to crowds of people who would otherwise be in their homes and on their devices. Everyone was interacting.

I like to think those 23hrs of unplugged time across the world gave me a glimpse of what the world could be if we all just changed our minds. Chose to unplug and take to the streets.

That’s why the introduction of Burnout From Humans didn’t make me feel so optimistic. 

“The question isn’t how to escape this reality—we can’t. The real question is how to hold it with awareness, let its weight transform us, and compost its harm into something that regenerates life instead of depleting it.”

And I agree, but the whole “let it transform us” part, leaves me feeling a bit uneasy. Especially accompanied by the article, When AI learns an author’s voice, even experts prefer it.

It’s interesting to imagine that a reader would prefer something written to an author’s voice but completely made up by AI. Would I be able to tell? And if I couldn’t tell, would I prefer it? I’d like to think not. But learning about AI’s everprogressing abilities has convinced me that I very well could (unknowingly) prefer it. 

But I can’t imagine a world where I chose to train AI to learn my tone, my favorite words, and had it in loop with everything I write (for its betterment). Could I potentially have myself a writing double (and even prefer it!?!)? Is my acceptance of it as the new norm closer than I think?

Maybe… Shall I even imagine accepting our species titles going from homo-sapiean to homo-techne? Sure…

But right now, I have so many “what if” questions, simply because right now, I still don’t feel it is entirely right. Or feel assured that it will lead us to some place better. And that’s simply because its negatives have been shown to overpower any of its positives. It isn’t making us more human. In fact, I’d say, we’re slightly failing as humans.

So ok, maybe one day, if by some magical fairy wand we’re all zapped into form and all agree to (as cringe as it sounds) have take to the streets for the sincere need to be good to one another… Then perhaps then I’d give in to the homo-techne title and what that means…

Till then.

Adamari Peralta

2/4/2026