Em Dashes Existed Before AI; Quit Saying Journalists and All Using Them Are Bots
Guys–stop it, I love the em dash–not everyone sharing my love of them is AI.
Every moment in pop culture has a wave of weirdness and assuming everyone is on it. I don’t look painfully skinny and rarely interact with people at malls, or I might be asked if I’m on Ozempic, or whispered about.
There was that time everyone started hair extensions, so I had some weirdo types feeling my head because all women use them. Who cares if women do? Part two, I don’t. Don’t touch my head in line at the store. I don’t know you.
In the early 2010’s, everyone was getting eyelash drops from dermatologists and plastic surgeons for eyelash growth. In actuality, these drops were some form of glaucoma drops. I couldn’t go to the supermarket without strangers in any state asking me if I used Latisse or its imposter eyelash serums whenever I wore basic mascara. Things got “hairy” when a lady, that time a family member made me go to a nail salon in NYC, ran up screaming in Russian and touching my eyelashes without my consent. Her boss and I had a moment on the unsanitary issue and other problems. I’m not talking wearing fake eyelash strips here. My actual eyelashes, with basic mascara. My answer then was always, “I’m a 23 year old female specimen of the human race. Why should I look bald like Uncle Fester?”
Then there was the “all work ever made by anyone who isn’t a corporation or giant studio is AI” trend.
And now, it’s trickled down to innocent journalists.
Posting a screenshot of this Yahoo! slash People article comment makes me worry the poster is going to enjoy the attention from it. For authenticity, I am leaving it up.
No, Patch. What were you reading in mass media before AI apps?
When I was growing up in the Y2K times seeing grownup, “fancy” magazines all use the em dash — or en dash –, it was like you threw ice cold water at me. These little lines clarified points so well. They looked good. Sophisticated.
I began using them in my freelance journalism as teen and early 20’s me.
People who barely knew me, seeing my freelance writing’s basic style, started making fun of me for it in fake writing online. Whenever they impersonated my pen names online, they got hooked on em dashes. Folks, pen names aren’t real people. Scrubbed the web of those weird fake comments. The maturity level on some people frightens me. Seems the em dashes frightened them, in the times of MySpace.
Quite some years now since butterfly clips were on their first round of popularity today, using em dashes as I did frightens me because everyone insults you that it’s AI with passion they could use volunteering for soup kitchens or learning new skills. My plan is laying low until people accept that AI is fine when you use it for good things, and no, not all people loving the em dash and its dashy cousins are worshipping the Kardashians, who once had a store named Dash, or using AI. We’re almost fearing the VCR right now.
Or as the young people say, go touch grass. As someone who has, grass is itchy and dirt prone, potentially chock full of gnats. For your first time existing in the outside world away from a smartphone or tech device, be warned, you may get bitten by insects.
Hey, Merriam Webster knows how to use these dashes! 💡
“Like commas and parentheses, em dashes set off extra information, such as examples, explanatory or descriptive phrases, or supplemental facts. Like a colon, an em dash introduces a clause that explains or expands upon something that precedes it.An em dash can mark an abrupt change or break in the structure of a sentence… “Mabel the Cat was delighted with the assortment of pastries the new bakery featured, but Harry the Dog—he felt otherwise, for the bakery did not offer cheese Danishes at all.”
An em dash can indicate interrupted speech or a speaker’s confusion or hesitation… “Of course you have a point,” Mabel murmured. “That is—I suppose it is concerning.”
The en dash is the least loved of all… It is most often used between numbers, dates, or other notations to signify “(up) to and including ‘The bakery will be closed August 1–August 31.’”
– Merriam-Webster.com, click that link for more learning fun!