Say Please!
Social Graces and the AI Generation Gap
Lately it feels like people of all ages are talking about AI. For many of us between 50 and 70, the first time we heard about ChatGPT or similar tools felt a lot like learning how to program a VCR after the instruction manual had already been recycled.
So do people in our age range actually use AI? The answer is yes, and probably more than we admit at dinner parties. We use it for writing help, brainstorming, emails, travel planning, recipes, learning new skills, and occasionally asking questions we absolutely do not want to text our kids about.
What has become especially entertaining is how personal these relationships have become. People have started giving AI nicknames. Some call it my awesome assistant. Others call it chattyb. A few jokingly refer to it as my boyfriend or my girlfriend because it listens carefully, responds immediately, and never checks its phone while you are talking. Expectations have officially shifted.
We have always been polite to machines. We just used to draw them with pulleys.
Another amusing wrinkle is manners. Do we say please and thank you when we talk to AI. Many people in our demographic absolutely do. Decades of professional emails, handwritten thank you notes, and being told to mind our manners do not disappear just because the other side happens to be software.
There is also a quiet superstition at work. Some of us suspect that when the robots finally take over, they will remember who was polite. That alone may be reason enough to type “please” before hitting enter.
Research suggests that nearly half of adults believe politeness toward AI actually matters. Others simply feel strange being rude, even to a machine that does not technically have feelings. Old habits stick around, especially the ones drilled into us by parents who could deliver a look that stopped time.
The bigger takeaway is that AI does not replace experience. It amplifies it. When people in our age range use these tools, we bring judgment, context, humor, and wisdom that no algorithm can replicate. Whether you call it ChatGPT, chattyb, or your awesome assistant, the real value comes from how you use it.
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