Are Words Really Necessary!? 🐾 Noise in the Internet World and Why People Still Can't Let Go of Words

🐾 Noise in the Internet World and Why People Still Can't Let Go of Words

Looking at the internet world today, it seems that words are being treated far too recklessly.
Abuse, lies, prejudice, denial, attacks.
Words that can hurt someone in just a few seconds and break someone's heart in just one line flow by every single day.

As I continue to watch this scene, a question suddenly arises.
Are words really necessary in the first place?
If words hurt people this much, wouldn't it be better if they were replaced by something else?
And perhaps in the future, a means of communication that replaces words will emerge.

This question is not merely a technical one.
It leads to deep philosophical questions about what it means to be human, what understanding is, and what truth is.

🐾 Before words are a "tool," they are also a "human dwelling"

Words are not just tools for carrying information.
It is true that we use words to make plans, convey facts, share rules, and store knowledge.
However, the role of words does not end there.

Through words, people give shape to their emotions.
Sad, frustrated, lonely, saved, wanting to forgive, but still hurting.
Such emotional fluctuations can sometimes only become "something I can understand myself" the moment they are put into words.

In other words, words are not just for conveying to others, but are alsoa vessel for understanding oneself.We seem to use words to explain the world, but in reality, while using words, we are finally discovering ourselves.

Therefore, just because words are chaotic on the internet does not mean that words themselves are unnecessary.
On the contrary,it can be said that it is precisely because we are in an era where words are breaking down that their true value becomes easier to see.

🐾 The problem may not be "words," but "the way words circulate"

What stands out on the internet now are not quiet words.
They are strong words, short words, stimulating words, and words that instantly divide people into enemies and allies.

This is because they are easily spread.
Anger invites reactions, assertions are easily shared, and prejudice simplifies complex realities.
In the world of algorithms, words that intensely shake emotions are more easily visualized than polite and cautious words.

What we must not lose sight of here is the perspective that
it is not that words are bad, but that the environment in which words are consumed is distorted.

Words originally require time for understanding.
But the internet demands speed.
Words originally require context.
But the internet prefers snippets.
Words originally work alongside the other person's face, silence, and hesitation.
But the internet pushes only text to the forefront.

As a result, words easily transform from "things that convey" to "things that pierce."
The reason we feel suffocated may not be that we are tired of words themselves, but that we aretired of the space where words are commodified and weaponized.

🐾 Will something that replaces words appear in the future?

In conclusion,I think it will appear.
However, it will not make words completely unnecessary, but will likely become a partial means of assisting, expanding, and sometimes replacing words.

There are already signs of this.
Emojis and stamps handle short emotional communication.
Video and audio carry richer nuances than text.
AI is beginning to convert ambiguous intentions into other expressions.
In the future, interfaces involving facial analysis, emotion estimation, gaze and voice analysis, and even brain activity and biological reactions may advance.

For example, in the future,
technology might emerge that conveys emotional states to the other party in an appropriate form without having to type "I am hurt."
Or, AI might supplement the very state of "not being able to put what I want to say into words" and convert it into a more accurate expression with less misunderstanding.

At first glance, this looks like the end of words.
But I do not think so.

🐾 Why do words not disappear?

It is because the human inner self cannot be completely compressed.

Parts of emotions and intentions can be replaced by symbols, images, or numerical values. For relatively simple states like "happy," "angry," "agree," or "danger," it will likely become possible to convey them quite accurately using methods other than words in the future.

However, the important parts of human beings are usually not simple.

I like you, but I am afraid to get close.
I want to forgive, but I cannot forgive yet.
I am in pain, but I do not even know why I am in pain myself.
I want to have hope, but I am afraid of being disappointed after expecting.

This kind of complexity is difficult to organize as data.
Rather, humans live while carrying things that cannot be fully organized.
And the strength of words lies in the ability to present that ambiguity, contradiction, and wavering while they are still wavering.

Words are imperfect.
That is why they also create misunderstandings.
But at the same time, because of that imperfection, they can寄り添う (stand by) the incomplete human heart.
A perfect signal might be accurate, but it is not necessarily human.
In this sense, while words are an inefficient means, they are also a very profound means for humans.

🐾 Then, can AI guarantee the credibility of words?

This is where it becomes a modern and very important question.

AI has the potential to contribute significantly to increasing the credibility of words in the future.
However, I want to state clearly here that
AI itself does not become the truth itself is the case.

I think what AI can do is mainly the following.

1. Assistance in cross-referencing and verifying information

AI can compare multiple sources of information,
identify contradictions,
trace sources,
and help organize things by saying, "This claim has weak grounds" or "This is close to a confirmed fact."

In other words, rather than being a judge who decides the truth or falsehood of words in an instant, AI can become
an assistant that speeds up the verification process.

2. Separating emotional words from factual words

On the internet, reports of facts and the release of emotions are easily mixed.
AI can analyze text and
separate and show,
"Is this a claim of verifiable fact?"
"Is this a value judgment?"
"Is this a guess?"
"Is this labeling?"

Even just this can change how words are received quite a bit.
This is because people often mistake strong assertions for "truth-likeness."

3. Restoration of context

Many instances of online backlash and misunderstandings are born from taking things out of context.
AI can organize the context before and after a statement, the timeline, the intent of the utterance, and the flow of the source citation, helping to return words to their original context.

This is extremely important for increasing credibility.
This is because words do not exist in isolation, but have meaning within a context.

4. Attaching "Uncertainty Indicators" to Ambiguous Claims

Humans prefer definitive statements, but reality is usually not definitive. AI can inherently fulfill the role of clarifying uncertainty through labels like
"High Confidence"
,
"Moderate Probability"
,
"Insufficient Evidence"
, or "Multiple Theories Exist".

This is very important.
Because credibility is not about asserting that something is "absolutely correct," but also about honestly showing how certain something is and where the unknown begins.

🐾 However, AI has its limits

It is dangerous to overlook this.

AI can handle vast amounts of words.
But being able to handle them and fully understanding the truth are different things.
AI is good at creating plausible expressions, but that does not mean they are always correct.
If the training data has biases, it may reproduce those biases.
If it references incorrect information sources, it may reinforce plausible lies.

What is even more troublesome is
that the more polished the text AI produces, the more likely people are to feel it is "believable."
In other words, while AI is a tool for increasing credibility, it also carries the danger of giving plausibility to falsehoods.

Therefore, what is needed in the future is not a culture of blindly trusting AI, but
a culture where humans take responsibility for judgment while letting AI assist with verification.

🐾 It is not just the "correctness of words" that truly needs to be guaranteed

Here, I want to think one step deeper.

When people hear "credibility," many think of "whether it is factually correct."
Of course, that is important.
But words have a dimension that cannot be measured by factual accuracy alone.

For example,
someone's account of their suffering cannot be verified like statistical data.
When someone says, "I am in pain," even if you can assess the truth of that like a machine, it does not necessarily provide salvation.

In other words, words have two different layers:
the truth of facts and
the authenticity of human experience.

AI can strongly guarantee the former.
Sources, consistency, probability, evidence, and falsifiability.
AI will become increasingly useful in this domain.

However, the latter—
things like sadness, prayer, loneliness, hesitation, and wishes—
must ultimately be accepted through human imagination and ethics.

In this sense, AI cannot guarantee all credibility of words.
But at the very least,
it can help verify facts,
visualize structures of prejudice,
slow the spread of lies,
and help prepare the foundation for dialogue,
it certainly has the power to do that.

🐾 What is needed in the future may be the "maturation of words" rather than "substitutes for words"

We tend to think that if technology advances, problems will be solved.
But the real issue might not be a lack of communication tools.
Rather,
the ethical question of what we say, with what sense of responsibility, and to whom is much greater.

No matter how advanced communication tools become,
malice will flow as malice.
Prejudice will survive by entering new vessels.
Lies will spread in more sophisticated forms.

Therefore, what is needed in the future is
not to discard words,
but to mature them.
And I believe we should use AI not as a substitute for words, but as a partner that helps with quality control of words.

🐾 Even so, people possess things that can only be conveyed through words

I believe that words will continue to be necessary.
However, it is not the reflexive and aggressive way of using words that currently floods the internet that is needed.
What is needed are words that do not oversimplify the world, do not judge others too quickly, and allow us to express even our own pain little by little.

In the future, the means to supplement words will increase.
Technology for conveying emotions will also advance.
AI will come to hold great power in verifying the credibility of information.

Even so, what remains at the end is
“I want you to understand”
“I am here”
“This is how I actually felt”
I think it is the words offered toward someone else.

Words hurt people.
But just as much, words save people.
Therefore, what we should be asking is

what kind of words we use, and with what kind of responsibilityI believe that is the point.