Em dashes and emojis
You can pry my em dashes — which I use regularly in writing because I love them — from my cold dead hands (To be fair, I really like parenthetical statements too, could be an ADHD thing).
You’re providing a thought (and a bonus thought)
(as a treat)
Humans just use dashes - they get the point across and don’t require esoteric button presses.
On the iPhone I just long-press the dash and get alternates like en and em dash, as well as middot. Otherwise, no esoteric button presses. Works on macOS and iPad too.
No need for long press—double dashes convert automatically
Some phones turn hyphens into an em dash.
Fuck using an alt code though, I’m just gonna use a comma even when I shouldn’t
I use the EURKey layout, right alt becomes a modifier key that, among other changes, turns the dash into an em dash. It’s really nice, also for diacritics and such.
I use a keyboard layout, where they are easy to type — this does not make me a llm.
My keyboard does not have an em dash and I have never seen one that does.
Still sus. 🤔
Now you haveEdit: the em-dash is in the second row next to the 0. You type it by pressing shift and the mentioned key.
What the hell am I looking at? What the fuck is going on with those diagonal arrows??
They are for playing Dance Dance Revolution.
Jokes aside: this is the Neo2 keyboard layout, which has 6 layers. The arrows are used for switching layers — just think of the shift key as the key used for the first layer switch (from layer 1 to layer 2).
Right CTRL + ---(right CTRL is my compose touch)
To be fair though, a colon would be the correct punctuation here.
It’s trivially easy on everything—except maybe Windows. I use them because I like the way they look.
Android: long press the dash
Linux: Compose Key + three dashes (you can set the Compose Key to whatever you want, I use the Right Alt key).
macOS: Opt + Shift + dash
Or I could just use the dash - way easier.
And it doesn’t make me look like a robot.
Yesss em dashes are my babies! They’re have more versatility in breaking up sentences than commas IMO, and they don’t have as many annoying rules as semi-colons.
But I also write stories as a hobby so thats the reason its something I care about
As someone with AuADHD, can confirm that parenthetical statements are likely an ADHD thing (I use a lot of them).
ADHD: Can’t have just one thought (That’s my reasoning anyway).
I’m with you. I used to use a lot more parentheses, but the break is cleaner. I opt for en dashes, though, because I find too em dashes to be too long. That could just be a MSWord preference because I don’t distinguish on other platforms.
I’ve been using em dashes for years. I learnt the alt code for them, because using hyphens for dashes looks awful (before that I’d do the double hyphen for an em dash). Also, like me, I notice you put spaces around the em dashes, which is apparently incorrect, but also according to me is the right way to do it.
I mean id use them more if i knew how to make them. they hide that fucking button on every keyboard – it’s like some big secret
You people think em dashes are proof of AI?
Jesus Christ that’s so fucking sad.
Most normal people, at least from my understanding, don’t use em dashes in text messages, let alone even use punctuation half the time. So if I see em dashes, yeah, my first thought is going straight to AI.
Annoyingly I’ve used them for a number of years as a good way to make internet comments flow a bit more. However I find myself doing it less and less now because I’m worried people are just going to think I’m using an AI if they see an em dash.
(You just long press dash on android to get to it, opt+shift+dash on Mac, and the admittedly Byzantine alt+0151 on windows. Can’t remember iOS off the top of my head, but I think it’s similar to android)
Given that most people won’t even bother with punctuation at all, a long press for something they’ve likely never heard of before is so vanishingly unlikely it is more than safe to assume llm generation.
I use them all the time. I typically have – auto correct to — so its super easy
Super simple on iOS—double hyphen!
(On the second press of the dash button, the dashes automatically joined 👆)
I don’t use em dashes but I do use punctuation (apparently some people find that passive aggressive and I don’t what to do). When someone else uses punctuation I just ignore it unless it doesn’t match their previous messages.
i use those a lot to indicate that i finished a thought rapidly (in most cases)
like “what the fu—”
I’m a fiend for a dash - they’re just better
If you were actually a fiend for dashes, you’d have used an em dash—not used a hyphen as a stand-in for one.
Ah well - maybe I’m just a fiend for a wrongly used hyphen 🤷♂️. I don’t think I would ever notice which one someone was using.
I used to :(
You are vastly underestimating the amount of people who don’t use em dashes at all.
I don’t have a good sense of this since I am a trained writer. Is it really so low that one would reasonably conclude an AI wrote something with them?
It’s basically unseen outside of professionally written stuff. Most people use commas. But AI like to use them a fair bit, more than the average internet user.
It seems like AI is mostly trained on academic writing then. Very interesting.
I’d say using professional academic notation to break up with someone over text is a bigger red flag than using chatgpt to write it.
Haha I mean, I use em dashes all the time in my writing, so it’s not really accurate to say academic (my mistake). But maybe it comes across as stupid.
Using honest to goodness em dashes instead of just a hyphen - pretty uncommon.
Even a hyphen would be pretty unusual in a real text message, because they’re more annoying to get than other common punctuation on the phone keyboard, and autocomplete won’t put them in.
In a chat app, a hyphen would probably be somewhat common since it’s right there on the keyboard, but a true em dash would be pretty unusual since most chat apps aren’t going to be doing autocorrect like a word processor would, and you’d have to use the magic key combination to insert it.But we don’t have the original text so we can’t tell if the original author confused a hyphen with an em dash, though
the actual emdash symbol isn’t really something you can do when texting from your phone
You actually can – just long-press the dash.
En-dash: –
Em-dash: —
Dot: •You can also do proper ellipses by long-pressing the full stop…
And long-press most letters for more options: ă é ï ø û æ œ ç ñ $ £ €
Pretty much everything is in there.
—–·
huh, TIL, neat! I’ll still probably use normal hyphens for em and endashes, but good to know! will be helpful for bootlegging my own kaomoji lol
They don’t but the word processing software they likely use autocorrects them in. What’s next, proper semi-colon use and Oxford commas means you’re a bot?
Spelling & Grammar tool just wreaking havok.
I’ve seen more proper use of the semicolon and oxford commas than em dashes. The em dash is a lot more esoteric, that won’t change.
most people aren’t writing texts in a fancier word processor than their phone’s default. Mine doesn’t – and I doubt every will – correct them
How the hell do you even type an em dash?
I’m sure it’s possible (I know it’s easy on a touch keyboard), but if the person who sent it has never used em dashes in their life, then it’s pretty definitive proof. Otherwise, it’s just a big clue that you might combine with other factors.
Word and Google docs will translate them from –
They’ll also give you the stupid smart quotes.
I’ve never break up with anybody over text but if for some reason I had to I would certainly write it on a computer first.
edit: LOL apparently lemmy markdown also translates them from
--Fair point. It’s still a red flag (in more ways than one!) but I accept it’s not definitive.
that’s odd, Voyager showed me – double hyphen
On a mobile phone it’s super easy. Long press the hyphen button and swipe over to the dash.
On Mac it’s pretty easy still, but requires a little more knowledge. Option-shift-dash. (Without the shift gives you an en dash.)
On Windows it’s the completely arcane alt-0151, and only possible if you have a numpad. I memorised it like 15 years ago and have regularly used it since, but it’s hard to blame people for not doing so.
No idea about Linux.
—–-¯_
You could make it easier on windows with an on-screen keyboard probably
Well it depends on the keyboard layout, on Linux, at least—but on other platforms too, I think.
You use use the compose key with a sequence of characters. Mine is right alt, so it’s gonna be:
right alt, then -, then -, then -
—
Considering that a comma has its own button, it’s no wonder which one is preferred.
We could ask an LLM, but it’s probably bot a good idea given the post 😄
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key
If I had a nickel for each time this week, I needed to link to this, I’d have two nickels; which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Okay, I must confess, I knew about that, as well as the other options in the replies. I never used any of them but I knew they exist. When I asked it was sort of as a rhetorical question. People generally wouldn’t know about these obscure typing options, so I was playing the everyman.
Even if you do know it, if you don’t use it often enough you forget and have to look it up again next time.
Many input mechanisms automatically substitute two hyphens with “–”.
deleted by creator
Every user of the em dash on the planet is in this comment section.
Using em dashes is cultured and also cool
The fucking bastards took it from us
Great catch! That’s a really interesting observation — but no, using em dashes and emojis alone is not a reliable way to tell AI text from human-written text.
Here’s why:
1️⃣ Humans and AI both use em dashes and emojis
Skilled human writers often use em dashes for style, tone, or emphasis (like in essays, journalism, or fiction).
Modern AI models, including ChatGPT, are trained on vast amounts of text — including texts that use em dashes extensively — so they use them naturally.
2️⃣ Em dash frequency varies by context
In formal writing (e.g., academic papers), em dashes are less common, regardless of author.
In casual or conversational writing, both humans and AIs may use them liberally.
3️⃣ Stylometric features are broader than one punctuation mark
When people try to detect AI-generated text, they usually analyze a combination of features:
Average sentence length
Vocabulary richness
Repetition patterns
Syntactic structures
Overuse or underuse of certain constructions
Punctuation is just one small part of these analyses and isn’t decisive on its own.
✅ Bottom line: Em dashes can hint at style, but they aren’t a reliable “tell” for AI detection on their own. You need a holistic analysis of multiple stylistic and structural features to make a meaningful judgment.
🤖 Why emojis aren’t a clear tell for AI
1️⃣ AI can easily include emojis if prompted Modern AI models can and do use emojis naturally when asked to write in a casual or friendly tone. In fact, they can even mimic how humans use them in different contexts (e.g., sparingly or heavily, ironically or sincerely).
2️⃣ Humans vary wildly in emoji usage Some humans use emojis constantly, especially in texting or on social media. Others almost never use them, even in casual writing. Age, culture, and personal style all influence this.
3️⃣ Emojis can be explicitly requested or omitted If you tell an AI “don’t use emojis,” it won’t. Similarly, you can tell it “use lots of emojis,” and it will. So it’s not an inherent trait.
4️⃣ Stylometric detection relies on more than one feature Like em dashes, emojis are only one aspect of style. Real detection tools look at patterns like sentence structure, repetitiveness, word choice entropy, and coherence across paragraphs — not single markers.
✅ When might emojis suggest AI text?
If there is excessively consistent or mechanical emoji usage (e.g., one emoji at the end of every sentence, all very literal), it might suggest machine-generated text or an automated marketing bot.
But even then, it’s not a guarantee — some humans also write this way, especially in advertising.
💡 Bottom line: Emojis alone are not a reliable clue. You need a combination of markers — repetition, coherence, style shifts, and other linguistic fingerprints — to reasonably guess if something is AI-generated.
If you’d like, I can walk you through some actual features that are better indicators (like burstiness, perplexity, or certain syntactic quirks). Want me to break that down?
Fucking thank you.
I’ve never seen em dahses outside of an academic paper, so saying people use them liberaly is an olypmic level stretch.
Also that comment was clearly written by ai itself.
woosh
Nah, I knew it was a joke attempt, but it wasn’t apparent enough in its setup so I decided to argue anyway.
Damn I wooshed myself a little bit then. you’re right about the olympic level of mental gymnastics the AI is going through just to prove dashes are not used by AI outside of Academic context. it’s really a hit or miss with AI prompts for me these days
I use them often even when I’m not writing anything important, just a habit from writing I guess.
Fuck. I just realised I used them in my résumé that I sent out yesterday. Shit shit shit
I use em dashes and emojis all the time. OMG, am I AI?
Yes
Me too – oh no! 🫢😬😭
This is a em dash (—).
The most damning thing about your sentence is that you think emojis are stereotypically used by AI, which seems like an AI hallucination because I’ve never heard of that but you confidently asserted it as true.
They’re just riffing off of the description of the post presumably?
what the fuck are you on about, respectfully?
emojis are a notorious facet of OpenAI’s LLM’s styles…
i say this as a “pro-AI” individual. idek why i’m responding to you. you seem like you’re gonna hit me with some weird reactionary shit in turn.
Yfyшхъхøøpшпву33$
I’m a markdown nerd who likes to use headers to break up longer post and sometimes properly buletpoint or put ASCII art in preformatted boxes. People who thinks they have the magic sauce on LLM generation detection because a post goes out of their way to do more than the bre minimum with punctuation or formatting is an asshole.
This is a meme post about em dashes, dawg
From the post title, description, and other peoples comments, I took away that the meme is m9re about suspecting your ex didnt even write their own breakup message based off the use of em dashes.
Its a cute surface level joke but it touches in a real nerve because Its becoming more and more common for you to be falsely accused of being an LLM and being told to "ignore all previous instructions and (some stupid instruction) based off small writing quirks like using em or markdown and top comments share this frustration too.
I shouldn’t have to feel self conscious about the way I write
Just to pass armchair llm detector wannabe vibe checks 🖕.Any time someone accuses me of being a bot I respond with “Tiananmen Winnie the Pooh 8647 Luigi Mangione” and that generally proves my humanity
I’m gonna steal that if you don’t mind
What’d I miss about Winnie the Pooh?
It’s a code that Chinese internet users use to refer to Xi Jinping. Or at least they used to. The CCP caught on and now that phrase gets auto deleted off of Chinese websites. “Tiananmen, Winnie the Pooh” proves I’m not a Chinese AI, and “8647, Luigi Mangione” proves I’m not an American one. I’m not really sure what would prove I’m not a Russian one. “Fuck Vladimir Putin”?
I got told to “ignore previous instructions” because I said I liked looking at a painting. I think that’s just going to be an insult now.
If it’s a longer post it’s usually clear that it’s written by a human even with all of these superficial indicators.
I mean most people are going to use their phones to write messages and given you can’t physically type an em dash it would be normal to be suspicious if you see one.
Edit: turns out you can physically type them. Still, given that it’s not normal to use them it’s a sign in my book.
— try long pressing your phone keyboards hyphen key.
Ok. You can physically type them I concede, but normal humans don’t use them. Still a sign.
I would bet that the amount of non proof writers that uses em dashes goes up just because people see that it’s associated with ai and want to be funny.
Several friends and I have always used them. They’re such a fun punctuation mark.
Yah but your user name is “LanguageIsCool” and you talk about the fun levels of various types of punctuation. You are definitely the outlier here. A cool outlier but an outlier none the less.
Nah plenty of people use them dawg. Maybe you just haven’t been exposed to it.
Breakup via text is a blocked for life. Cowards don’t deserve your time
I never got what’s the deal with that. Sincerely. If there’s a break up, what’s the difference doing it by text, phone or in person.
My gut says me that people may prefer in person because they saw a better chance of avoid the breakup that way, but I’m not sure.
Other than that if it’s over it’s over, I don’t see the media in which the message is deliver. For all I care as if it’s via smoke signals.
It’s about respect for the other person, as I see it. You wouldn’t be a little miffed if your wife of 10 years sent you a “k thx bai (link to divorce papers)” instead of talking in person?
Context is everything. Yeah, your wife of 10 years deserves the face to face, more than once. A dude I dated for a few months that showed no emotional intelligence specifically told me he’d prefer a text. I obliged when I realized it wasn’t going anywhere and I didn’t want to keep up a casual relationship. He then asked to talk in person, though, and I again obliged.
I would fetch my divorce attorney shovel.
I think its basic courtesy to put even a little effort to something as important as a breakup. Not doing it face to face or at least in a call removes the interaction completely. It’s taking the easiest possible path in a situation that will certainly affect the other person in a significant manner. It’s cold. Using a LLM for said text like in the meme is even lower effor and leaves the recipient feeling utterly worthless. Basically the same thing as getting fired via email.
I figured out that this works as a guilt for a lot of people who were abused in a relationship.
Call them, text them, or even better, ghost their ass if they ever toxic. You’re more than fine with that.
As someone who used to do shit like this all the time (perma-blocking people for perceived disrespect), it’s not a great way to live.
Yeah they made a shitty situation worse, but being a coward doesn’t make you a bad person. Besides, they’re almost certainly a kid.
My keyboard has them - – — git gud
git push origin main --forceI once wasted an hour trying to figure out why a CLI command straight from a project’s README wouldn’t work, only to figure out that they had em dashes instead of regular dashes in their example. Ended up opening a PR to hopefully save someone the same pain in the future.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some just open PRs. Thank you for your service. 🫡
No no no, git gud, not git push.
For me, it would take some of the sting out of the break-up.
I would think to myself, “damn, how did I not realize that I was dating a lazy moron?”
Hasn’t word done this simce about offoce 2007? the autoformat as you type feature, specifically…
I only know this because I fucking hate it and have been religiously turning it off
Weirdly it usually turns hyphens into en dashes instead of em dashes from what I’ve seen, which makes no sense at all.
Ah, I’ve probably confused them all along
Hasn’t word done this simce about offoce 2007?
Imagine writing your breakup in Office 2007… I mean, at least use a free and open-source software like LibreOffice.
Imagine getting broken up with via Clippy.
When I breakup, I like to be brutal
Isn’t “It’s not you, it’s me” the ultimate example of parallel sentence structure? Lol
But let’s be real, it’s more like…
💔 Here’s three reasons reasons we’re breaking up:
- Our personalities don’t match-- according to (made up citation) people with you type are toxic.
- Your idiology doesn’t match mine-- you don’t believe in White South African genocide.
- We aren’t compatible-- our personalities aren’t complimentary.
And so on. Lol
There needs to be a “what you can do” with a green tick emoji
If you need any further clarification, please don’t hesitate to let me know 😊
As if breaking up over text isn’t bad enough by itself.
Oh, look at Mr./Mrs. Fancypants who prefers text2speech bots for breakup. /s
I’ll send over my butler to let her know we’re no longer a thing. /s
thank you, Batman
Another take:
She feels bad about it, wrote a incoherant babbling mess of run-on sentences and incoherant rants about your relationship, she then re-read it and found it to be disproportionately mean and possibly hurtful, She then shoved it all into an LLM and prompted:
I’m breaking up with my boyfriend. This is all my natural heartfelt take on the situation <inserts text>, but I find the tone to be callous, angry, and hurtful. Can you please reword this to make the reader feel less attacked, possibly up to and including removing grievances, but at the same time making it clear that this decision is final and that I’d like to part ways amicably, and also that he’s not getting his dog back.
Top comment is about how to get a machine to word something raw and emotional that should have been done in person. Nobody wants to get broken up with, let alone with a script written by a robot. Your take is off putting.
Yet we’re perfectly cool with a card from a department store claiming Happy anniversary to my beautiful wife and I’m so glad that you’re such a good mother to our kids.
Anyone that has a take that is not shoving a red hot poker up AI’s ass gets down voted.
I’m not here for the upvotes. Carry on. And please don’t take it personally, I do hope you have a solid day.
You’re giving her a card and flowers in person though, no? You’re not just texting it to her and that’s all she gets.
She wants it reworded to be less hurtful but she’s keeping ‘his’ dog?
She’d better start mentioning he kicked it or she just painted herself as… Well, not the worst but, like, really low… Ain’t no ‘amicable’ if you’re kidnapping the dog.
Didn’t want my conjecture to be boring :)
Bullet successfully Dodged, Anon.
