this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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— is easy to type and it's unfortunate that it is considered an indicator of AI generation (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 day ago by quarrk@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net
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You literally can just long press the normal hyphen on the iOS keyboard, probably similar in Android

So, you saw an em dash in a sentence and immediately screamed “AI!”? Hold up. That long, dramatic line — yeah, that one — has been around way before ChatGPT slid into your DMs. Writers have been using em dashes for centuries to spice things up, create vibes, and break the rules in the coolest way possible.

Here’s the tea: the em dash is a tool, not a tell. Just because an AI uses it doesn’t mean it’s some secret signature. You know who else uses em dashes? Literally every author who’s ever wanted to sound clever, casual, or just a little chaotic.

So next time you spot an em dash, don’t panic. It’s punctuation, not a personality test.

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[–] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 15 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Funny how it used to be a shibboleth for lawyers and now it's a tell for AI. Em dashes are very useful punctuation marks though — being able to chain sentences together for longer than intended is very helpful for writing without thinking — what I do — or just being generally chaotic in writing.

[–] Edie@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

just being generally chaotic in writing

ADHD thoughts within thoughts. Instead of using two layers of parentheses, substituting one for dashes.

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago

and then you want to close it with a smiley (or is it emoticon (I never really used that term even back in the day ... and today everyone just calls them emojis :))) and it looks like a triple chin

[–] allthetimesivedied@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I love using colons in a rare sort of way: like this. Like, the colon is followed by something that builds upon the first part, or some sort of comment on it or whatever: I love writing like one of those famous old authors whose writing styles are fucking weird. Like the author of Trainspotting: I’d be a great writer if I could write something meatier than a Mastodon post.

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I also love reading oldish writing, like pre-20th century where the rules were far looser.

We take it for granted, but mathematics also used to be quite loosey-goosey until it was formalized by David Hilbert in the 1920s. Dude was an absolute legend, I mean just look at him:

[–] allthetimesivedied@hexbear.net 2 points 16 hours ago

I was always really bad at math, because of the way it was taught to me and idk how to explain further.

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lawyers 🤝 English majors

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

I just abuse commas