Tag: technology

Echoes of Aletheia

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What Happened

This week has been one of the most stressful and nerve-wracking weeks of my life, and it’s not even because of the workload. Some backstory: I worked on this one essay for four days, and I ended up getting a zero on it because it was flagged for AI. My teacher’s and the website’s case: too much copy-pasting.

And she wasn’t wrong; there was a lot of copy-pasting, but it wasn’t from AI. Our middle school teachers used to tell us that as a precaution, whenever you do a big assignment, put it through AI detection websites to check if it shows up as AI or not. Just in case, you know. I did this exact thing with this essay, but I copied and pasted it into the AI checker and pasted the same thing back onto my essay, which I shouldn’t have done. In my version history, it may have shown up as a “large copy-paste,” causing the website to look at it as AI, even though it wasn’t. 

Another thing that happened was that I was using a grammar checker to check for spelling and grammar errors. But somewhere in the middle, it started suggesting rewrites to advertise a ‘pro’ plan. I stupidly accepted them without checking what they said, and that’s what made my essay show up as both copy-pasting and AI.

What I Think About It

In the end, all my work showed up as a lot of AI, and my teacher is not ready to believe me that I did not use it because the website has so much evidence against me. It honestly felt horrible to see days of work dismissed as a zero so quickly. I understand why my teacher reacted that way — from her perspective, it looks clear-cut. But what I think is that these websites cannot be blindly trusted, which is what my teacher might be doing. If you put one essay through 10 different AI checkers, it can range anywhere from 0% to 100%, which just proves how varying and inaccurate they can be.

What I Learned

The main lesson I learned from this is not to touch AI or even think about it, even in the form of grammar checks. If I want to do a grammar check, I can use the feature built into Google Docs, not any external website or extension. Also, I am definitely not going to even touch my Ctrl C and Ctrl V keys during any of these assignments. Another thing I learned is that the websites that teachers use for these types of essays do very thorough checks of everything, including version history, similarity to other students, plagiarism from websites, and AI language. 

I know why this happened, and it was partially my fault, but I feel very helpless and frustrated, because it was a misunderstanding and complete stupidity on my part. Because everything looked so clear from my teacher’s side, she decided to give me a zero on this assignment, which has impacted my grade a lot.

On the positive side, it is good that this happened in my freshman year. If I have a low grade in this semester and a high grade in other semesters of English, then it will show up as movement, not a random bad grade in the middle of nowhere. I’m glad this happened now, when I can learn from it, rather than later when it could’ve mattered more. If anything, I hope other students can learn from this and avoid making the same mistake that I did 😊.

Pandora’s Phone

Just like Pandora’s box, our phones hold both gifts and challenges. In high school and life, knowing how to navigate them is key.

Phones have practically become the symbol of our generation. If you ask someone to describe teens, chances are they’ll say: moody, changing, and glued to their phones.

Honestly, fair enough. We are the first generation to grow up with phones, and with that come big benefits and some major setbacks.

Phones make school life easier: instant communication, quick access to information, last-minute class updates, and organizing group projects fast. But as helpful as they are, they can also be incredibly distracting, especially when time is tight.

Apps like Instagram and TikTok are designed to keep us scrolling. Seeing everyone’s perfectly curated lives can make it easy to compare ourselves and feel like we are not enough. In high school, where everyone is trying to fit in, that pressure can feel even heavier. So much happens online, from group chats to drama, that face-to-face conversations can start to feel awkward and stressful.

On a bigger scale, overusing phones can affect mental and physical health, causing anxiety, sleep problems, and shorter attention spans. They can lower productivity, create social isolation, and even lead to privacy and safety concerns.

And, this isn’t just something I’ve read about, I’ve seen it happen around me, and sometimes I fall into the same trap. In previous years, I’ve watched classmates skip class, ignore instructions, or waste valuable learning time just to check their phones. Maybe to post a dance, text friends, or play a game.

I’ve also been guilty myself. Many times when I don’t feel like starting a task, I just open YouTube and start scrolling, even though I know I’m not using my time well. Eventually, I get back to my task, but that time is gone forever.

Phones are not all bad, and they are definitely not going anywhere. But finding balance, knowing when they help us and when they hurt us, is becoming more important than ever. At the end of the day, phones are just tools. How we use them can make our lives easier or a lot more complicated.