Remember when em-dashes were just punctuation?
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Remember when em-dashes were just punctuation?
Now they’re slop-watermarks.
You can’t read anything online anymore without seeing them lined up like little forensic clues:
“Here’s the thing—”
“Let me explain—”
“The future is—”The em-dash used to mean:
“Ah, a stylish writer.”Now it means:
“This paragraph was assembled in 0.8 seconds by a stochastic parrot that thinks every sentence needs the cadence of a TED Talk delivered during a hostage situation.”We’ve reached the phase of the internet where punctuation itself has become a tell. Like digital fingerprints left at the scene of a content crime.
Soon literary critics are gonna write:
“Early 2020s prose is characterized by emotional support em-dashes, vacant aphorisms, and the overwhelming sensation that the author has a podcast microphone somewhere nearby.”The em-dash died for AI’s sins.
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Remember when em-dashes were just punctuation?
Now they’re slop-watermarks.
You can’t read anything online anymore without seeing them lined up like little forensic clues:
“Here’s the thing—”
“Let me explain—”
“The future is—”The em-dash used to mean:
“Ah, a stylish writer.”Now it means:
“This paragraph was assembled in 0.8 seconds by a stochastic parrot that thinks every sentence needs the cadence of a TED Talk delivered during a hostage situation.”We’ve reached the phase of the internet where punctuation itself has become a tell. Like digital fingerprints left at the scene of a content crime.
Soon literary critics are gonna write:
“Early 2020s prose is characterized by emotional support em-dashes, vacant aphorisms, and the overwhelming sensation that the author has a podcast microphone somewhere nearby.”The em-dash died for AI’s sins.
@Larvitz did you use AI to write this?
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@Larvitz did you use AI to write this?
@ee Partially. I used AI (a local LLM in LM-Studio on my Laptop) to refine the wording/writing.
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@ee Partially. I used AI (a local LLM in LM-Studio on my Laptop) to refine the wording/writing.
@Larvitz bit ironic, no? What you posted is true by the way, but I’m convinced I can sense when something is AI-written even if there are no em dashes.
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@Larvitz bit ironic, no? What you posted is true by the way, but I’m convinced I can sense when something is AI-written even if there are no em dashes.
@ee Bit ironic, definitely.
I use AI as a writing tool, since it can write English (a foreign language for me) way better than I can. I use it more as a form of "Translator+" and text refinement method.
The small, French "Ministral" Models that fit even in my small Laptops iGPU are perfectly capable for that task. (Offline, power efficient and fast).
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@ee Bit ironic, definitely.
I use AI as a writing tool, since it can write English (a foreign language for me) way better than I can. I use it more as a form of "Translator+" and text refinement method.
The small, French "Ministral" Models that fit even in my small Laptops iGPU are perfectly capable for that task. (Offline, power efficient and fast).
@Larvitz don’t worry I’m not judging you. Though I wouldn’t be judging you either if you wrote imperfect English. Nothing wrong with that.
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@Larvitz don’t worry I’m not judging you. Though I wouldn’t be judging you either if you wrote imperfect English. Nothing wrong with that.
@ee I think it's two different things, using AI as a refinement tool to optimize text (with a human in the loop) and using AI to output endless amounts of slop and filler content and throw that into the web ...
-
Remember when em-dashes were just punctuation?
Now they’re slop-watermarks.
You can’t read anything online anymore without seeing them lined up like little forensic clues:
“Here’s the thing—”
“Let me explain—”
“The future is—”The em-dash used to mean:
“Ah, a stylish writer.”Now it means:
“This paragraph was assembled in 0.8 seconds by a stochastic parrot that thinks every sentence needs the cadence of a TED Talk delivered during a hostage situation.”We’ve reached the phase of the internet where punctuation itself has become a tell. Like digital fingerprints left at the scene of a content crime.
Soon literary critics are gonna write:
“Early 2020s prose is characterized by emotional support em-dashes, vacant aphorisms, and the overwhelming sensation that the author has a podcast microphone somewhere nearby.”The em-dash died for AI’s sins.
@Larvitz I never learned to write with em-dashes, but rather with semicolons. I've failed a Turing test once, but my semicolons reassure me that I am indeed human.
-
Remember when em-dashes were just punctuation?
Now they’re slop-watermarks.
You can’t read anything online anymore without seeing them lined up like little forensic clues:
“Here’s the thing—”
“Let me explain—”
“The future is—”The em-dash used to mean:
“Ah, a stylish writer.”Now it means:
“This paragraph was assembled in 0.8 seconds by a stochastic parrot that thinks every sentence needs the cadence of a TED Talk delivered during a hostage situation.”We’ve reached the phase of the internet where punctuation itself has become a tell. Like digital fingerprints left at the scene of a content crime.
Soon literary critics are gonna write:
“Early 2020s prose is characterized by emotional support em-dashes, vacant aphorisms, and the overwhelming sensation that the author has a podcast microphone somewhere nearby.”The em-dash died for AI’s sins.
@Larvitz Thinking about it more, I historically have associated em dashes with advertising. I simply don't remember reading them in ordinary written text.
