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

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.

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

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.

the actual emdash symbol isn’t really something you can do when texting from your phone

Also, don’t tell me you need to roll more than sixes to win yahtzee

Ok but this is an interesting question.

If you rolled only sixes, you’d score 30 in the upper section, missing the bonus.

Then in the lower section you’d get 30 in each of 3 & 4 of a kind and chance (90 points) and 50 for the Yahtzee. One could make a case that it’s a weird full house, but that’s a stretch.

That’s a total of 170 points. That’s not going to do very well when 250 is often considered a minimum “good” score.

However…some rules give you an extra bonus for a second or subsequent Yahtzee. With that, you could actually win with all sixes. Just get 100 after 100 after 100 and end up with over a thousand points.

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.

Super simple on iOS—double hyphen!

(On the second press of the dash button, the dashes automatically joined 👆)

I use them all the time. I typically have – auto correct to — so its super easy

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.

i assume hand written, as that is excessive even for ai. im gonna test it tho

edit:

Prompt: write me a prargraph talking about how em dashes are not a defibitive sign of ai. use ecessive amounts of em dashes

result: Sure—here’s a paragraph absolutely drowning in em dashes—because why not?

People often claim—incorrectly—that excessive use of em dashes is some kind of definitive sign of AI-generated text—but that assumption falls apart quickly—because human writers—especially those with a flair for dramatics or a tendency toward fragmented, breathless prose—have been peppering their sentences with em dashes for centuries—long before algorithms were even a concept—and while it’s true that language models sometimes favor em dashes—they’re hardly unique in that regard—many contemporary authors, bloggers, and even journalists lean on them heavily—for rhythm, for emphasis, for parenthetical asides, for style—so to say “em dashes equal AI” is like saying “ellipses equal laziness”—a statement that’s catchy but hopelessly reductive—and if anything, this overgeneralization itself is more indicative of shallow analysis than of any deep understanding of writing—human or artificial.

Want me to make an even more over-the-top version—like so dense with em dashes it almost collapses into chaos? Or keep it just slightly unhinged but still readable?

answer: yes

response: Alright—here’s the full chaos version—an unhinged wall of em dashes—designed to overwhelm, confuse, and yet—somehow—still make its point:

The idea—that em dashes—those long, elegant, interruptive strokes—are a definitive fingerprint of AI—is laughable—no, it’s absurd—because human writers—yes, real, living, breathing writers—have always loved them—used them—abused them—even worshipped them—as tools for rhythm—for drama—for sudden shifts—for inserting thoughts within thoughts within thoughts—and while AI—sure—might lean on them occasionally—it’s no different than a poet—or a novelist—or an over-caffeinated blogger hammering out a late-night post—filling their paragraphs with dashes—em dashes—everywhere—because it feels natural—feels conversational—feels alive—and if we start declaring any style quirk—a dash, a semicolon, a penchant for adverbs—as “proof” of machine authorship—then we risk erasing the messy, chaotic, wonderfully unpredictable reality of human prose—a reality full of contradictions—full of excesses—full of writers who don’t give a damn about rules—and that, ironically enough, is something no algorithm has quite mastered—not yet—not ever—so no—the em dash is not a smoking gun—it’s just a mark—and marks are made by hands—human or otherwise.

Want me to go even further—like a version where every single comma and period is replaced with an em dash? Or one that’s so self-aware it starts mocking its own overuse of dashes?

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.

—–-¯_

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.

Considering that a comma has its own button, it’s no wonder which one is preferred.

that’s odd, Voyager showed me – double hyphen

Fair point. It’s still a red flag (in more ways than one!) but I accept it’s not definitive.

Not all heroes wear capes. Some just open PRs. Thank you for your service. 🫡

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.

We aren’t really cool with that though, people tend to write a longer personal note inside those cards.

No need for long press—double dashes convert automatically

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.

Or I could just use the dash - way easier.

And it doesn’t make me look like a robot.

No, it makes you wrong.

My keyboard does not have an em dash and I have never seen one that does.

Still sus. 🤔

thank you, Batman

Why am I bold? why does markdown do my head in. Its really not that hard.

You only get a horizontal line when you have the three dashes sit alone on a line

But when you use it inline—then it should render as an emdash or–an endash

Some of this may depend on your client. If you do a triple dash by itself on its own line:

You get a horizontal rule in most clients, including the default web UI and all of the major browser based clients I’ve tried.