Not more than a few hours ago, I attended an educators’ meeting. Among some of them, there seemed to be this blind consensus that technology is ruining the newer generations.

While I’m not ignorant of the dangers posed by its most negative aspects, like social media, I fear technological illiteracy far more than I love the imagined virtues of a peasant life in some idyllic and romanticized past.

First of all, it is a complete disservice for educators—and a glaring disconnect within the intellectual class—to pretend that society as a whole will revert to manual production and “simpler times” when all the new job opportunities and economic activity are moving in the opposite direction.

This stance is doubly insulting because educators are teaching people who are, on average, at least ten years younger and therefore have much more time to spend in the marketplace. 

Is it any wonder academia is becoming so unappealing when it’s so out of touch with any sensible aspirations?

And the reasoning behind this aversion to technology is equally appalling. Arguments like “I don’t understand AI, therefore it’s evil” are not only shortsighted but also egotistical. 

Who are we to deny a better future simply because it doesn’t fit our glorified version of the past?

When did it become easier to simply dismiss everyone else as an idiot rather than making an effort to grasp a technology that virtually everyone is using?

The bureaucracy surrounding it, trying to control it, is even worse. The new guidelines from some so-called “higher-education” institutions are laughable—practically one step away from demanding ink-written manuscripts in a medieval style just to ensure no undue credit slips out of their golden halls. They seem more focused on gatekeeping than fostering actual academic production.

Plagiarism is not a new issue, but it wasn’t “rampant” then, it will not be now. All it takes is a little interest in your own subject, slightly less fear of new tech and you too would see the problem is not really as big as you want it to be.

Yes, AI poses a legitimate threat to academic integrity, but learning how to use the tool and identifying its traits is far healthier than launching a moral crusade. This approach, which assumes everyone is either a compulsive cheater or too stupid to produce anything of value, does more harm than good by refusing the integration of proper uses of the tech into practical scenarios. 

I think it’s high time academia came back down to earth. Technology isn’t going anywhere, and formal education—with all its gold ribbons and ivory walls—is putting itself on the path to irrelevance if it continues down this road. But perhaps that’s how it should be. After all, many movements, like the now-defunct “Arts and Crafts” movement, arose as reactions to industrialization in the last century. Perhaps some institutions and practitioners are simply destined for extinction.