AI, Em Dashes, and the New Era of Job Board Scandals: What Season of Black Mirror Are We In?

Oh my Emily Dickinson.

A scandal is rocking the social media world, and it’s got copywriters and influencers clutching their pearls in unison. Apparently, using an em dash in your writing is now suspicious.

You know—that em dash. The one Emily Dickinson basically built a career on.
It’s being flagged as a sign that your cover letter may have been written by AI.

And people are losing it.

It’s Not About the Em Dash

It’s never about the em dash.

It’s about the collective anxiety of realizing that the tools we swore would save us are now threatening the illusion that we were irreplaceable.

And I get it. I’m a writer. I’m a brand strategist. I’ve built my entire world on voice—on the belief that how you say something matters as much as what you’re saying.

So yes, watching people weaponize punctuation as a purity test is… unhinged.

But also? Completely on brand for a culture obsessed with performance.

We Were Already Content Machines

Here’s the real issue: AI didn’t make us this way.
We did.

We trained ourselves to speak in carousels and caption formulas.
We spent years chasing engagement metrics like they meant something.
We learned to batch ourselves into neat, brand-safe packages.

AI just showed up and said, “Cool, I can do that too.”

And now we’re panicking—because we’re not sure where the real voice ends and the optimization begins.

I’m Not Interested in Playing This Game

I use AI. And I still write like a human.
Because the way I think? That’s not artificial.

I’m not here to trick an algorithm or prove I’m “real” by avoiding an em dash.
I’m here to build a brand that sounds like me—on a good day, with some tea, when I’m not second-guessing myself into silence.

Because at the end of the day, the goal isn’t to prove I’m not a robot.
It’s to remember I’m not one.

So What Do We Do Now?

We stop performing for systems that don’t know us.
We stop using human-ness as a marketing angle.
We start building workflows that support voice—not just output.

That’s what Brand Arcadia is for. That’s what I’m for.
I’m not interested in adding to the noise. I’m interested in helping creatives protect their edge without burning out or watering themselves down.

So if you’re over it too—this culture, this noise, this obsession with looking human instead of being one—stick around.

Still here? You get it.
Let’s rebuild something better.

🖤 [Join the list] or check back for the next post. I’ll be writing them myself—with or without the em dash.