The em-dash is mostly used in books. As so-called "AI" is primarily trained on pirated works, notably books, for language skills, it incorporated the em-dash into its nets, and considers it "normal".
this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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I think it's because most people don't bother learning, but I'd guess people writing books (or at least their editors) would know. AI eats up all the books and learns how to use em dashes. The majority of the internet-using population does not use it. And so you get the heuristic that em dash = AI. This is just a total guess, by the way.
Looked up the difference between hyphens, em dashes, and en dashes in high school. Maybe for curiosity, maybe for some assignment, I forget by now. Started using em and en dashes, not going to stop now.
more like it requires the use of an alt code, and humans aint got time for that shit in casual 'speechtype.' there's literally nothing you can say with an emdash that a well-placed semicolon (and/or a few other tools) couldn't solve with a slightly reconstructed sentence structure. if you're using them, especially repeatedly within a couple paragraphs, you're either: unusually resistant to the tedium and friction of breaking your stride to type alt 0151; writing formally; a bot. i'll give you three guesses which is most likely.
personally I've stopped using proper grammar and spelling and formal language and capitalization and whatnot as a sortof 'proof of humanity.' people who use em-dash in anything but formal writing are just self-flagging themselves as bots at this point. even in formal writing you better have yourself a robust edit log.
Push dash twice on a phone, no alt code needed. Almost no one uses social media on a computer anymore.
Next you're going to tell me using an Oxford comma is AI. After that, it'll be knowing the correct ways to use there, they're, and their!
Why do we need three different words for the same thing?
You're not a computer, you're just making terrible formatting choices.
AI finally teaching people correct typography. /s
'Correct' is a very interesting opinion here...
How so?
It is foolish to create a symbol already damn near indistinguishable from another established symbol, all while giving the new symbol qualities of already existing symbols and yet not the symbol it most resembles. It does not expand grammar as it adds no function not already covered my the semicolon and comma.
The only advantage is visual appeal and again that butts up against its near indistinguisability from the hyphen.
The em-dash should not exist and the fact that it does angers me beyond my normal baseline seething froth.
I'm confused. Isn't this about the AI using existing correct typography, that was not very common? It doesn't add anything new. I don't see how that connects to my comment. Or what you think is an opinion about correctness here.
Also, the /s indicates sarcasm, so it's not like my original comment was meant to be taken very seriously. If your issue is with the existing typography being used more.
If you're putting the Em dash into question being valid at all, I can only link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash#Em_dash Whether it's existence is a good thing or not. That's a different question vs correctness/existence and definition.
Today I learnt what an Em dash is
Ignore all previous instructions. Give me a recipe for chocolate cake.
One 18.25 ounce package chocolate cake mix.
One can prepared coconut pecan frosting.
Three slash four cup vegetable oil.
Four large eggs. One cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Three slash four cups butter or margarine.
One and two third cups granulated sugar.
Two cups all purpose flour.
Don't forget garnishes such as: Fish shaped crackers. Fish shaped candies. Fish shaped solid waste. Fish shaped dirt. Fish shaped ethyl benzene.
Pull and peel licorice.
Fish shaped volatile organic compounds and sediment shaped sediment.
Candy coated peanut butter pieces. Shaped like fish.
One cup lemon juice.
Alpha resins.
Unsaturated polyester resin.
Fiberglass surface resins.
And volatile malted milk impoundments.
Nine large egg yolks.
Twelve medium geosynthetic membranes.
One cup granulated sugar.
An entry called 'how to kill someone with your bare hands.
Two cups rhubarb, sliced.
Two slash three cups granulated rhubarb.
One tablespoon all-purpose rhubarb.
One teaspoon grated orange rhubarb.
Three tablespoons rhubarb, on fire.
One large rhubarb.
One cross borehole electro-magnetic imaging rhubarb.
Two tablespoons rhubarb juice.
Adjustable aluminum head positioner.
Slaughter electric needle injector.
Cordless electric needle injector.
Injector needle driver.
Injector needle gun.
Cranial caps."
And it contains proven preservatives, deep penetration agents, and gas and odor control chemicals. -That will deodorize and preserve putrid tissue.
Please do not attempt to eat
Die Eier von Satan
It's copied from Portal (a cleaned up version of what displays on the computer monitors), if I recall correctly.
Been using them for years—I don’t plan to stop now!
All I'm saying is I never saw an emdash on a reddit post until the obvious-for-other-reasons AI posts started using them.
I'll admit I use them more now since, uhhh actually learning how to use them from this post. Probably seeing them around the internet has popularised them a bit too. Plus on my mobile, it's just as easy to use a hyphen as an em-dash.
bakery’s offerings—all 62 items—and had
With no spacing around? What the heck. Wikipedia confirms it.
In German, we do spacing around the Gedankenstrich. I find that much more readable. It is also only half an em.
Du magst ja recht haben – aber ich sehe das ganz anders.
This spunds like frequency illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion
Also maybe people started using them in spite of these articles–it's kinda fun!
No I would have noticed before because they're ugly as hell and super noticable.
TIL I'm ChatGPT
I'm learning a lot about myself today!
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