Most modern English speakers seem to use way, way fewer semicolons than they should; I'm not sure whether to blame this on education or if it's just the bar for publishing being lowered; nevertheless, the vast majority of people I've talked to don't know to use semicolons with coordinating adverbs (or whatever they're called) such as "however" and "nevertheless;" oftentimes they also don't know that comma-splices are bad; as an amateur Grammar-nazi, this general practice really irks me.

kurt Vonnegut was rather famously against the use of semicolons. it made me rethink their usage. these days i'm more likely to use two sentences to convey the same idea.

there are three ways to break up the flow of writing. . is to start an entirely new subject , is to stay on the same subject ; is somewhere in between, you're still on the same topic but have switched focus.

another way to think of it is conversationally. a period is a breath, a coma is a pause, a semi is a slightly longer pause.

It's something I've come across in older writing (ie >50 years ago). As mentioned above, the modern thing to do is to use bullet points.