The Fear of Not Sounding Human: Em Dashes, ChatGPT, and Writing Anxiety

People get so angry about em dashes. Or do they?

I have a theory that we’re not actually mad about em dashes.

We’re mad about not knowing how to tell if something is human anymore.

And somehow a long horizontal line has become the smoking gun.

I recently listened to a 99% Invisible episode about the em dash. It was smart, historical, nerdy in the best way. But what struck me wasn’t the typography. It was the accusation.

Someone got accused of using ChatGPT because of an em dash.

Not because of tone.Not because of structure.Because of punctuation.

That’s wild.

The em dash has been used for centuries to make writing feel more human. More breathy. More mid thought. More alive. And now it’s being treated like a captcha test.

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