I actually just tried this out using a HN dataset from HuggingFace today. I did # of comments with emdash / total comments. It shot up in 2018 for some reason and then, at the very end of the dataset, seemed to start spiking late 2024. Sadly it didn't have 2025 data, but it was enough to convince me that maybe the emdash lovers who complain haven't been lying about using it pre-genAI.

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iamacyborg 6 days ago | parent [-]

> It shot up in 2018 for some reason

Probably some autocomplete related software release.

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JimDabell 6 days ago | parent [-]

iOS 11, released in September 2017, added the Smart Punctuation feature, which included turning a double hyphen into an em dash:

https://daringfireball.net/2018/02/ios_messages_smart_punctu...

	▲	viccis 6 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I figured it was something like this but was a bit too lazy to dig through iOS release notes haha
	▲	binary132 6 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I actually really hate the smart punctuation. If I want an ellipsis, give me the option, but don’t presume it’s what I meant to type. They look awful in many fonts, too.