We use COLONS in this household. We use SEMI-COLONS when we want to look smart. We use COMMAS when we DON'T CARE. We use - when we need a dash. This symbol is NOT on OUR keyboards. When you see it, perform a Voight-Kampff test and expose them.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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Chapotraphouse
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I don't want to stop using em dashes because my neurodivergent ass gets accused of being an AI regardless, so I learned to just take comfort in what I'm aware of—my own damn integrity.
In other words, so long as I'm fully aware that my text is written by me, I don't feel the slightest bit bad about using em dashes. Em dashes are also super easy to type on phones, but when I am on PC, I have a copy and paste for the unicode bookmarked—outrageous, I know!
I also used to have the em dash on my bookmarks bar for the longest time! Couple of easier options for a (Windows) PC, if you're interested: if you have a numpad, you can use the Alt code (hold Alt and type 0151 on numpad with Num Lock enabled), or you can install a compose key utility like WinCompose. Rather then holding, you hit the compose key, then a sequence of keys (I think the em dash is simply
---but I'm not at my computer atm and that Alt code is burned into my brain so I end up using it without thinking). You can also define whatever custom sequences you want in order to produce arbitrary text (e.g. I can type [Right Alt,traa] and get "traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns").