There was a time when the em dash was a powerful tool in the writer’s arsenal—used to interrupt, to emphasize, to inject tone or rhythm into a sentence. I’ve used it for years, even had to Google it more times than I care to admit just to copy and paste the damn thing.

And then AI came along.

Now, you can barely read an article without seeing em dashes everywhere. It’s become something of a tell. If you see a post overloaded with them, chances are pretty good that it was written by a GPT.

Now, don't get me wrong. I use AI. I like AI. This very post even had some AI input. But my voice is my own and I’m not giving up my favorite punctuation mark because the bots happen to like it a little too much.

I’m taking back the em dash.

Not because it’s controversial. Because it’s useful. Because sometimes a comma is too weak, a period is too final, and parenthesis are too detached. Because sometimes, an em dash helps me says exactly what I want to say with just the right amount of pause.

So if you see one in my writing, don’t assume anything—except that I meant to use it.