Today we are warned to expect Storm Bram to arrive, provoking scenes like these in Dorset and Devon.
He shouldn’t affect us so badly here in the Northwest but you never know. And besides, the heavy rain we’ve had so far today and the fact that it’s not really got light, is quite enough. We are deep in the season of soups and hearty stews!
Yesterday I decided it was time to assess my preparedness for Christmas and actually wrap some presents. I know people who organise social events for Christmas Eve but in my case it usually comes down to a frantic flurry of activity to ensure presents are wrapped for the following day. So this year, having got started on the Christmas present buying carousel rather late I decided to get ahead of myself. It tuns out that I had already amassed a collections of bits and pieces ensuring that, even if I don’t have main presents for them, the small people have lots of small presents to open on Christmas Day - all part of the fun and games, creating total havoc with wrapping paper.
In the midst of my wrapping I realised I had mislaid an item I had bought on Friday when Granddaughter Number Two and I had descended on Marks and Spencer with specific purchases in mind. The missing thing was quite a large item of clothing, not easy to lose, I would have thought, but I could not see hide nor hair of it. I even consulted Granddaughter Number Two on the off-chance that she might have inadvertently walked off with it. No! She hadn’t but she helpfully filled in a lost property report for the local bus station in case we had mislaid it there. Then a delivery man arrived with parcels for the neighbours - could we take them in until the neighbours came home? But of course! - and as I deposited said boxes in the study, I spotted a Sainsbury’s carrier bag lurking under the desk. The missing purchase! Someone had stowed it in a safe place, apparently! Why said item was in a Sainsbury’s bag and not in the M&S bag with the other purchase remains a mystery! Wrapping can continue!
As I make lists and stick reminders for myself onto my diary I wonder whether students still use PostIt notes as study aids. It used to be a regular thing once upon a time, sticky notes reminding you of key facts. I had a student in an adult language class who festooned her house with PostIt notes reminding her of the Spanish words for all kinds of things around the house. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia item about the invention of PostIt notes, an offshoot of a search for the strongest glue ever! But in the digital age of information on computers, do students even need to flag up important facts in the books which they are (probably not) reading?
Which brings me to AI and chatbots. I read that some places have been installing digital billboards next to lifts, billboards that register how people react to them, especially the captive audience of those who wait for lifts to arrive. More disturbing are articles Ii have read about young people turning to chatbots for advice. One in four of 13- to 17-year-olds have used an AI chatbot for mental health support in the past year, reports tell us. They apparently find it easier than phoning a helpline and speaking to a real person. One young person said, “The more you talk to it like a friend it will be talking to you like a friend back. If I say to chat ‘Hey bestie, I need some advice’. Chat will talk back to me like it’s my best friend, she’ll say, ‘Hey bestie, I got you girl’.”
I suppose we all like to be told that our opinions and decisions are the right ones. It’s hard to have someone try persuade you that you need to change your mind, especially when you are feeling vulnerable. And in this age of digital games where it is accepted that you interact with a realistic avatar, IA voices have become more reassuringly human-sounding. It’s another element in the isolation in which so many people seem to live their lives in the modern age. Here’s a link to one article about it. And here’s a link to another article.
I started this post with gloomy comments on the weather. I grew a little more positive with preparations for Christmas. Now I seem to have slipped down a gloomy AI related rabbit hole. Time to think positive! Maybe I’ll go and write some Christmas cards, actual cards not electronic greetings.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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