Hmmm

My sophomore year in high school was 1984.

1984 was a fun year to be in high school. The 1980s as we think of them were really just starting to take shape, leaving the last remnants of the 1960s (aging hippies) and 1970s (disco) behind. The stock market was booming, “Yuppie” became a thing, and ESPN starting transitioning from table tennis and Australian Rules football to decidedly-American sports like football and baseball.

I also had an English teacher who seemed obsessed with two things: the novel 1984. And the em dash. We spent two weeks learning about and practicing the em dash.

There was so much about school I hated because it seemed so pointless to my teen-age brain — multiple choice exams, pep assemblies and Geometry come to mind.

But I came to love the em dash.

The em dash is awesome!! It is punchier and a lot more sexy than a colon or parentheses. And as a person who is often told by countless people in his life that he has undiagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder (even in a time when everyone thinks every human has Attention Deficit Disorder) how much I love that I can change my thought or direction during a sentence by simply putting in an em dash. Plus, very few people use the em dash in practice, so I’ve discovered over the years that very very few grammar nazis add their two cents about my use of em dashes.

Then AI came along. And perhaps AI was partially coded by a former 10th grade classmate. Or it took a lot of its knowledge from 1984 textbooks. Or it just has it out for me. Regardless of the reason, AI thought, “Hey, I’m going to use this em dash thing. A lot!”

Now I frequently am asked if AI has done my writing for me. And commentors on Reddit etc. have insisted that I used AI to write my writings. Why? Because apparently the em dash is a dead giveaway for AI. Not only have I seen countless pundits making this observation, but recently I’ve seen articles in Apple News and other sources about the proliferation of the em dash in AI.

Now I’m afraid to use the em dash. Because I don’t use AI to write — writing is one my great joys in life — and I don’t want people to think I’m lazy and rely on AI to do my writing for me.

Years ago I remember the Seattle Times writing about a lovely fishing and swimming spot that it considered a hidden gem. A few weeks later there was a letter to the editor wherein a person who’d been going to that spot for years complained that spot was now overrun by people who’d seen the article. “I wish I could ruin something you love,” the writer said to the editor. Now I kinda of know how that person feels — the em dash has been tainted for me.

Sigh.

First world problems.

I guess a life wherein a big problem is the tainting of the em dash is a pretty good life indeed. For that, I’m grateful.

COMMENT/NOTE:

• No use of AI was used to write or edit this post 🙂

• This is a re-post from my LinkedIn profile post.