Column: Don't take shortcuts. Learn for learning's sake

A true love for learning has reached an all-time low among college students. 

Everywhere I turn in class my peers are swiping, scrolling or even sleeping. This disinterest in courses extends past lectures and into coursework; students overwhelmingly use ChatGPT to answer their questions, write their essays and solve their equations. There are more methods than ever to avoid learning, and students are using them. This mass reliance on these tools is eroding the very purpose of education: learning for the sake of learning.

While I am not proud of it, I too once used these methods. Last year, as a fresh first-year, I was stuck taking a lot of general education courses. I was engaged in all of these random courses at first, and thoroughly enjoyed attending them and learning. Despite this, I eventually grew too lazy to take them seriously, and began to utilize computerized shortcuts like ChatGPT, Chegg or Brainly to do my learning for me.

While I initially didn’t use computerized shortcuts much, using it at all put me on a very slippery slope. I began using it more and more until it reached the point that I was not learning much of the material. I didn’t think that this was a big deal, telling myself that these were trivial courses and it did not matter if it was me doing it or AI.

In spite of my mindset, a friend of mine would often express to me how he felt about my use of computerized shortcuts: “no matter how boring or trivial you think a class is, there is always something that you can learn from it,” he would repeat over and over. While I was initially resistant to listening to him, his reiteration of this idea began to erode my stubborn mindset.

It never really struck me that I was avoiding learning until I internalized these words. Sure, I knew that I was taking the easy way out, but I thought that I was still gleaning some benefit from these courses. This realization was especially saddening considering that I am a naturally curious person and would say that I love to learn.

I understand why it is so easy to fall into a rhythm of using shortcuts, because I too succumbed to it. With just a few clicks of a keyboard, ChatGPT can essentially answer anything that you ask it to. With such powerful tools so readily available, it is no wonder why so many students rely on them to an unhealthy extent.

Occasionally utilizing computerized shortcuts is not an issue, but depending on them is. If we lean too heavily on AI, we learn neither the content in our courses nor from the struggles of grappling with difficult concepts and prevailing; even academic failure can teach us valuable lessons. Obviously, learning in our courses is crucial, but learning from the experiences of puzzling over coursework is arguably even more valuable. Unfortunately, with how seamless shortcuts can make college, many do not fully experience either of these types of learning.

Computerized shortcuts clearly have more applications than doing your homework for you. They can help you to summarize dense passages, explain tricky concepts and translate writing, which are much more apt uses. Reflect on your use ofthese corner-cutting measures, and analyze if they are in congruence with your love of learning.